Curious Benjamin

Stay Happy, Stay Young!

2012-09-09T23:55:00.001+04:00

"Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough" - Don Marquis

There are very few certain things in life and aging is one of them. We often hear many quotes like 'age is mind over matter, if you do not mind it doesn't matter', which basically encourage us to accept the old age and move on but we know better that since ages human has tried to find ways to stay and look as young as possible and the mankind has gone through some crazy phases in this endeavor.

Recently I came across a philosophical guideline for staying young. Following are few things which anyone can practice;

Throw out non essential numbers such as age, weight, blood pressure measurement etc. Let the doctors worry about them. That's why you pay them.
Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Keep learning. Learn about the things which interest you. It can be computer or craft or even gardening. Empty mind is a devil's workshop.
Enjoy the simple things in your daily life. We encounter so many of such moments in our routine life. All we need is to keep our eyes open.
Laugh often, long and loud till the time you gasp for breath or your eyes start watering.
The tears happen. Endure, grieve and move on. The only person who is with us till the time we are alive is ourselves. Be alive when you are alive.
Surround you self with what you love. It can be a pet, a hobby, family, friends. Your home is your refuge.
Cherish your health. If it's good, preserve it. If it's not then improve it. If its beyond what you can improve then get some help.
Don't take guilt trips. If you feel like then take a trip to a tourist destination or to a foreign country but not to where guilt is.
Tell the people that you love them at every opportunity.

At the end we must remember that our life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments which takes our breath away. Stay happy and stay young!

Positive Thinking!

2012-08-30T21:49:00.001+04:00

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” - Winston Churchill

I am one die-hard believer of positive thinking and the changes it can bring about in any one’s life who chooses to practice it. More often than not I personally try to practice it. Recently, I came across a story of one such hell of a positive thinker. Read on…

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or youcan choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply… I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Evernote - Your Second Brain

2012-08-25T12:37:00.001+04:00

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned”

I am a reasonably tech-savvy person. I also do have interests in the latest happenings around the World as far as the gadgets and technologies are concerned. This interest of mine, led me to discover one of the applications, which literally remembers everything and acts as our second brain. It is called ‘Evernote’. What fascinated me more about this application was it’s support to most of the platforms, it’s simplicity and the icing on the cake….. It’s absolutely free (there is a premium membership option, more about it later).

Evernote helps us to organize the information collected in various forms and from numerous sources. It can be in the form of pictures, notes, ink notes, voice notes, web clippings, mails, PDF, excel sheets, word documents etc. It stores your notes on ‘cloud’ so you can access it from any computer or smartphone or even your blackberry. The people at Evernote has developed applications which can be installed on various platforms. You can download applications for your laptop, mac, blackberry, iPhone, smartphone, desktop etc. The cloud storage also helps in keeping your data in sync on all your devices. I have Evernote app on my iPhone, my laptop at work and my Mac Book Air at home. Till date I have around 600 notes which are synced and which are now accessible from anywhere in the world even from the laptop or a desktop where no Evernote app is installed as I can always go on their website and access my notes.

Evernote employs OCR to allow the user to search for images according to the text contained in those images. Being able to search for text in images is a great way to save time. If the user needs to capture important information quickly, taking a snapshot for future reference is a handy option. Often, the OCR will even be able to read handwritten text in photos as long as it is fairly legible Finding the text, later, is easy because of the benefits of OCR.

They have a browser extension for most of the commonly used browsers so at a click of button any web page is directly stored into our Evernote account. Just think would you ever need a piece of paper now when you are collating information from web?

The most beneficial element of Evernote is it’s organizational system. The software contains several different ways to categorize information, such as Tags, Note Titles and Notebooks. Evernote allows the user to keep track of several projects at once with the “Notebooks” feature. The user creates and titles a notebook, then can further organize the information within that notebook with “tags".

Evernote has two memberships option. One is absolutely free and another is a ‘premium’ one. Premium member pays US $ 5 per month or US $ 45 a year but it comes with privileges such as a single note of up to 50 MB (free members:25 MB), monthly upload allowance of 1 GB (free members:500 MB), capacity to search for text in PDFs, faster sync speed.

For those that find themselves drowning in piles of sticky notes, Evernote is a much improved alternative to the former. The organizational system and OCR make it worth a look for those that are looking for help in organizing ideas at work, home or just bits of data from every-day life.

Evernote website: www.evernote.com

Inspiring Story

2012-08-24T00:29:00.000+04:00

“Fight with your strength and not with other’s weakness because true success lies in your effort and not other’s defeat”

How many times it has happened with us that we have lost all the hopes and have felt dejected? that we lack many things in us? that we are not good enough? Well, I am sure if I think about it I will definitely loose count. I recently came across a forwarded mail. It has a really inspiring story along with a message for us to remember in all those difficult times when we ever feel dejected or small. It goes something like this..

A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”

“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament.

Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.

The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match.

Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be over-matched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.

He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.”

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him.

The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind. “Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?” “You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”

We, human beings,do not realise the importance of what we have and we rue over what we lack in life. We know life is not perfect for any one but it has to be made perfect with whatever we have been given and once we know this fact surely life will be a much more happier journey.

Ferrai World Live Show May 2011

2012-08-22T23:53:00.000+04:00

Past - A Rear View Mirror

2012-08-22T23:28:00.002+04:00

“One must always maintain one’s connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it.”

We all seldom indulge in brooding over our past. We cry over the missed opportunities and repent over our mistakes. We also nurse a grudge against some one because of an event of the past. In our heart somewhere we always have this feeling that this brooding over the past is a wasteful exercise and we are also certain that it would not lead us anywhere. Still we can't resist a slightest of temptation to indulge in this. I agree that its not an easy thing to forget our past but I believe rather than brooding over our past we can put it to a constructive use and learn from these past bitter experiences.

Lets look at it in an easy way. Those who drive vehicle would easily understand this metaphor. Every vehicle has a rear view mirror. How often while driving a vehicle we use this mirror? I bet not more than 10% of the time. It is used only as a matter of reference or as a matter of a guide to drive our vehicle so that we don’t meet up with an accident. I believe same applies to our past. We should think about our past and use it for our guidance while driving our life on the roads of present which are going towards our future. We should use the past only to ensure that the mistakes we made then are not repeated in our present or in our future.

Though we keep saying and hearing that ‘everyone learns from his/er mistakes’, we don’t actually implement it. Our past experiences (mistakes) provide us with an opportunity to learn something for our benefits. We rather use it wisely than indulge in it.

Creative Writing!

2012-08-22T02:07:00.000+04:00

Things Happier People Do!

2012-08-22T01:52:00.000+04:00

Apparently, following are the common things which happier people do on a consistent basis.

Express gratitude
Cultivate optimism
Avoid over-thinking and social comparison
Practice act of kindness
Nurture social relationship
Develop strategies for coping
Learn to forgive
Increase flow experiences
Savor life's joy
Commit to their goals
Practice spirituality
Take care of their body

A Life Without Challenges!

2012-08-22T01:15:00.000+04:00

"A life without challenge, a life without hardship, a life without purpose, seems pale and pointless. With challenge come perseverance and gumption. With hardship come resilience and resolve. With purpose come strength and understanding." - Terry Fallis, The High Road

Has any one in this whole wide world be spared of difficulties or challenges during his/her life time? At least I havent seen any one who has been. But still we see people with different emotions all around us. Some who are always laughing, smiling, enjoying their moments of life. At the same time there are some who are equally opposite! crying over small things, always brooding and complaining. Having seen such contradictions I always felt that life is really partial. Some are having happiness in abundance and for some its a distant dream. But when I closely looked at few of such cases I realised its not that life is partial but its our view which surely is. We see only the smile on the face of people and deduce that there lives are free from worries but we do not try to understand the way in which they handle their challenges and problems and I guess that's where the difference lies. A person minus problem is not possible but a person minus negativity is definitely possible and that makes all the difference.

Imagine a life with out a problem. Its like going to school but not learning a lesson, eating food with out actually cooking (well actually its possible e.g. eating in a hotel but eventually someone will need to cook so that you can eat!). It is said that the life is a big tutor and the challenges are lessons which we need to learn. These lessons learnt through out our journey are nothing but the opportunities. Opportunities to grow, to learn and to be wise. Each lesson unless learnt will keep repeating its self so that we can learn and master it. The people whom we often see happy are the bunch who acknowledge their problems, face them and eventually learn from these problems. Life will always present us with difficulties but that will become less difficult when we start acknowledging that fact and instead of running away from it, start facing them. When we stop running from the challenges, they become less challenging.

If you have seen the caption of the advertisement for 'chrome browser' it says 'web is what we make of it!' I guess the same can be said for our lives and its challenges. 'Life is indeed what we make of it!' Isn't it?

Ru(ai)n down the memory lane!!!

2009-12-13T09:17:00.000+04:00

As the drops fell on the window pane..
I went down to memory lane.
When I was a cavalier guy..
though quite bold but little shy.
How I used to enjoy this rainy season..
as it was joy for thousand reasons.
Those moments of walking in the water logged street..
sometime wearing slippers or sometimes empty feet.
Those errands with friends up to college..
though it was closed was within our knowledge.
Those moments of fun while getting wet..
and munching those snacks and tea without regret.
I know those moments have passed and will never come back..
but I am happy that this shower has made me live them again!!!

Dubai had a first taste of proper monsoon for the year, this weekend. It was drizzling over the weekend but post midnight it started raining like how it rains back home. It was a nice site to see people on the streets carrying their umbrellas and wearing their jackets in a country when most of the part of the year you can see only sun soaking the streets. However, the rainfall took toll on the traffic in the city. I enjoyed every bit driving in the morning to office taking these pictures and reliving those memories of past, thinking how, back home, people used to make way to their offices in the heavy rains. I really wish that Dubai also should have its share of monsoon. Though not as heavy as we get in India but a small fraction of it is definitely welcome!!!

Is winter approaching??

2009-12-08T10:59:00.000+04:00

Though its already December so it would be a foolish question to ask but here in Dubai, weather has not cooled down as much as it used to during past years. Today morning was some indication that though late the winter is approaching. They say here that whenever there is a dust storm ..its an indication that weather is changing. I hope that this turns out to be a weather changing storm!!! Thanks to the technology, I could click these photographs on my way to office today morning...And mind well these have been taken at 10 in the morning though it looks as if they have been taken quite early at dawn.

Destiny

2009-12-07T12:07:00.001+04:00

Destiny...Guess everyone believes in this word to a certain extent. I am the one who believes in this to a very great extent. Since the day I started reading, I have read one thing quite repeatedly which says, either in exact phrases or indirectly, that a person's destiny is written the day he/she is born. Though I am a big believer, I, sometimes,really think 'can this be true?' Does this mean that our life path already exists when we are born and we are bound to follow that path living our lives and are destined to meet all those people with whose path our paths are intersecting!!!
This sounds amazing isn't it? ..That also means that what ever we have been doing right now is all part of a bigger plan of our life...All those people we are meeting during our life are those who while following their life paths are unknowingly intersecting our life path!!! If this is true then I really wonder how many more people would be intersecting my life path while I am walking mine?? Its strange as well as wonderful. As they say that 'we are just puppets whose strings are in hands of the God what ever we do and behave is according to the way our strings are being pulled by him' Does this mean that all those great inventors invented things not cos they decided to do it but cos they were destined?? Does this also mean that all those great rags to riches story are mere the work of destiny?

In that case what about the other thing which I have heard often...'our destiny is in our own hands. We are the creators of our own destiny' Isn't it quite puzzling??

Honestly, I started thinking about this 'funda' quite deeply when I heard about an ex colleague of mine reaching a new height in his professional life. At the same time when I was quite happy for him, I was also thinking that how we both started our career together almost at the same time and how my career got diverted and due to turn of event I had to relocate myself at a distance from my family. Not that I regret the step I had to take but I try to analyse what is there in store for me in future. If they say that I am merely acting my part in life as scripted by the God then I fail to wonder why has it been scripted this way? and why am I supposed to play this part being away from my two small ones who may be needing me at this very moment? Though I know the thing I am doing now or my present situation can not be seen in isolation and its just a small part of greater good of my life, I am in a constant search for that greater good of my life that main purpose of my life which I am fulfilling by playing my present part.....

(to be continued)

Rejuvinated me....

2009-12-03T22:47:00.000+04:00

I haven't posted for a long time. Truely speaking didnot get any ideas worth writing about. On a more honest note it was also partially due to some sort of complex. It was a complex of not considering my writing skills as good as of those few authors whose blogs I came across recently. It was a complex of considering myself an amaturish writer as compared to others. But today as I am standing on the street (!!! understandable as I am blogging using my new toy) and as the cool breeze of December is blowing across my face some blocks in my mind are vanishing. Some doors are unlocking.....

I am thinking why should I stop writing? The reason why I had started posting was not for anyone else. It was supposed to be a pure exercise for myself.. For my mind... The day when I started posting, I had decided that this was supposed to be a tool for me to talk to myself....to my inner voice. Then why this comparision should arise in first place. This is not supposed to be any sort of competition. If it is competition then it's only a matter of competing with myself. It's a competetion with my self-beliefs about myself. It's a matter of judging whether I really know myself as good as I thought so. I have always heard people saying that the way five fingures in your hand are not alike... In the same way no two persons can be similar. A strength of one can be a weakness of other... Similarly it would be fair to say as of now I am a smaller fingure as far as writing is concerned and I should move on with out bothering much about the same.... And Its certain that this writing skill will also improve after my regular blogging ...

So here I am with a rejuvinated enthusiasam to blog... To know muself and as they used ti say in a well known TV series ' To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before!!'. So my one and a half followers watch out Here I go again !!!!!!!

(Forgive the spell errors as spell chk nt activated)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What an ID(K)EA!!!!

2009-11-25T11:35:00.000+04:00

Yesterday, happened to visit IKEA store in Dubai. For those who are not aware IKEA is a furniture retailing company based in Sweden and having shops all around the globe. It's kind of a self servicing furniture shop where you can select from the vast range of various household furnishing (both soft and hard) items. The company believes in selling affordable and good quality of furniture. To make the items more affordable, you would see that there are no formal sales people in the store. All the items have been displayed in the store by sections i.e. living room, kitchen, bedroom and so on and so forth. All one has to do is roam around the store and look at the furniture and buy it. Except for big items all the other items are to be picked up and assembled by the buyer himself/herself. Thus by company saving employee costs and passing on the benefit to the end users.

The first thing you would notice here is the simplicity and easiness in assembling the items bought from here. This is so simple that a person with no experience in carpentry can also easily do it. The phrase that the beauty lies in simplicity is quite visible here.

The second and the most noticeable thing is the attention to details given by the company while manufacturing the items. These are regular day to day usable items but are so very finely designed and made that each and every problems faced commonly, using a particular item, has been paid attention to while designing the same. All the items which are to be self assembled are supplied with correct numbers and correct sizes of nuts and bolts. On the top of that the items are supplied with detailed diagrams with gives pictorial instructions on assembling. Any question on assembling, even before it arises in your mind, will be answered in the instruction manual. I have heard many times that 'the God lies in detail' and this is the place where you would really see it.

The store here in Dubai is a huge one with two levels and I guess the accumulated size is of almost more than 4 football stadiums. The store is also as uniquely designed as the items sold in the store. The store has a nice workable canteen where they serve quite yummy and nice food. I guess this is really needed considering the amount of walking involved while roaming around the store. I am sure anybody who is interested in home/office interiors would spend not less than 3-4 hours roaming around the store. Every time I land there, I literally have to drag myself out of the store. This is kind of a paradise for all those people who love their houses. Really I must say 'What an id(K)ea sirji!!!!

Uncertainty

2009-11-19T11:11:00.000+04:00

There are certain incidents in life which really make you feel that everything in life is so temporary. Heard about some one loosing his job. Till yesterday he was a king of that place and today he has been shown the door!!! This really makes me wonder is their anything in life which is certain?? Then why do people live their lives thinking that their is no end to it? I guess the person whom I am referring would have understood the temporary nature of the things in life.

I guess we should ask what is uncertainty to a person who just met up with a fatal accident, to a soldier who just was shot down by a bullet, to a guy who lost his fortune in a gamble, to a person who just has been shown the door on a job....And then we should think that if the life is so uncertain then why do we keep clinging to our egos and our differences? why cant we forgive and forget? why can't we settle our differences? Guess if we can realize and answer these questions then the world would be a real peaceful place...

Snooze......

2009-11-18T10:04:00.001+04:00

This word is known to most of us. And if we think for a second we would realise how important thing this is. Imagine the sweet sleep we normally have between two snoozes. It is such a nice thing that we can actually postpone the current event for few minutes without much disturbance. It is like holding the precious time in our hand with out letting it slip by..

If we stretch our imagination further and just think what if we can apply this principle to all the other things in life!!! Just think how nice it would be to remain child for just a little while longer. How beautiful it would be to extend the first date for a little bit longer. How joyful it would have been to play with our kids once again before they grow up and get lost in this busy world. The joy that we would have got would be much sweeter than the morning sleep between two snoozes. Isn't it??

But life does not have a snooze button. Now thats why I feel what the stalwarts say holds such a truth of life. We need to cherish each and every moment of our lives with out much worrying about future and with out regretting our past as today is a gift that is why it is called 'present'...

May be....

2009-11-17T16:18:00.000+04:00

Maybe. . we were supposed to meet the
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 gift.

Maybe . . . it is true that we don't
know what we have until we lose it,
but it is also true that we don't know
what we have been missing until it
arrives.

Maybe . . . the brightest future will
always be based on a forgotten past;
after all, you can't go on
successfully in life until you let go
of your past mistakes, failures and
heartaches.

Maybe . . you should hope for enough
happiness to make you sweet, enough
trials to make you strong, enough
sorrow to keep you human, and enough
hope to make you happy.

Maybe . . . the happiest of people
don't necessarily have the best of
everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.

Maybe .. . . the best kind of friend is
the kind you can sit on a porch and
swing with, never say a word, and then
walk away feeling like it was the best
conversation you've ever had.

Maybe . . . happiness waits for all
those who cry, all those who hurt, all
those who have searched, and all those
who have tried, for only they can
appreciate the importance of all the
people who have touched their lives.

May be . . you should do something nice
for someone every single day, even if
it is simply to leave them alone.

Maybe . . . there are moments in life
when you miss someone -- a parent, a
spouse, a friend, a child -- so much
that you just want to pick them from
your dreams and hug them for real, so
that once they are around you
appreciate them more.

Maybe giving someone all your love
is never an assurance that they will
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 that it grew in yours.

Maybe .. . . you should dream what you
want to dream; go where you want to
go, be what you want to be, because
you have only one life and one chance
to do all the things you dream of, and
want to do.

P.S. : This is taken from a mail I received recently.

First day at the school

2009-11-17T10:36:00.000+04:00

Finally!!! started blogging...While I was creating my profile I really felt the same kind of excitement and thrill as a student would notice on his first day at school. Among the entire process of creating your blog, the best part was naming my blog. As rest of the things are like pick and choose. I really had to scratch my brains a little to come up with the name of the blog. Finally thought of this name. The first part of name came from one of my attribute i.e. inquisitiveness and second from the movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) I guess as I am also a big movie buff. Once I got the name the rest was pretty simple as it was choosing from the platter. .