The Good Life

You Never Know

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 06:00:00 +0000

We all strive to be happy. At least most of us do. And in order to be happy, we do many things. Things as large as planning our career and family life to as small as cracking a joke to make someone smile. Happiness underlies every action of a common man. But maybe we take it a little too far. Maybe the very things that we do to make us and ours happy, back fire and make us the contrary – unhappy.

I doubt if anyone would disagree with me when I say that our lives are not really happy. Isn’t this the total opposite of what we want to be and what we strive to be? If we are putting in so much effort towards being happy, then why is it that we eventually end up being not so happy, or in the worst case, sad? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we overdo it. One thing we can agree upon for sure is that happiness cannot be obtained by a loner, unless of course he or she is a Yogi and finds bliss in Sadhana. We are happy when we do something for ourselves, and we are happier when we do something for others. The second kind of happiness is more fulfilling and hence more attempted than the first. Herein lies the problem.

Most often one would tend to think that one knows the person one is trying to make happy. After all, one knows what needs to be done for that person to make that person happy. Isn’t that knowing enough? But you see, like the million variables that make accurate weather prediction almost impossible, there are perhaps a million more variables that make predicting human emotion almost impossible. So although you are doing something to make a person happy, maybe, just maybe that person will not enjoy that thing at that time in that place because his or her mind is preoccupied with something else that needs fulfillment. And everything goes for a toss when this happens – that person gets their fulfillment by doing what they think will make you happy at that exact time. That person has been trying to do what you have been trying to do all along. Both are trying to make each other happy. Both are trying to do something nice, both have the best intentions for the other person yet neither is able to do anything for the other to make him or her happy. So much thought, so much effort and so much love and affection later, the result is nil, rather you receive a totally different emotion - anger, irritation or frustration. And you oh so rightfully retaliate. You retaliate with a higher degree of the same emotion you just received. But you will not talk it out calmly to figure out that you both were great together and it was just a miscommunication. No sir. You will want a justification from the other person for letting you feel bad. Remember that the other person is also expecting the same from you, and this keeps going. This is a classic infinite loop unless one hits Ctrl+Z to terminate the program. You see, what is at work here is a little thing called ego.

So what is the conclusion of all this? Is the other person liable for a justification? Then so are you and we all will be justifying ourselves for eternity, God knows what new peril will evolve out of that. Or, you address this little person in you called ego, and tell it to shut the #%&# up. And go on with your endeavor to make that other person happy and achieve it. Seriously, just try it. You never know!

To be a Man

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:05:00 +0000

You feel quiet and you're so lonely
Oh so lucky you are, you have a companion to have a word with.
You feel hurt and you wish to cry
Oh so lucky you are, you have a shoulder to cry on.
You feel bad and you're sad
Oh u so lucky you are, you have friends to share.
You feel left out and you're stranded
Oh so lucky you are, to be asked "you want a ride?"
You have a problem and you start to wet your pants
Oh so lucky you are to be reminded you are a man
Because...
Those feel bad that have friends yet none to share
Those feel lonely who win the world but can't show off
Those feel hurt who are hurt and are still hurt
And oh!
Those feel lonely who are in a crowd and yet are so alone
But...
Those are men who endure
Those are men who keep pushing forward
And
Those are men that feel all sorrow and yet sprout out to ask "what's next?"

The world is full of non-sense

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 04:40:00 +0000

The world is full of non-sense. And most of the times you find yourself in the midst of the most nonsensical thing that can happen on a given day. And when you go through it again th same day, you feel the earlier one was still better, thus justifying to yourself that at any given time you are in a graver shit than before. Come to think of it, you just gained the physical and mental strength to take more shit. What happens the next day is anybody's guess. And this repeats. Day in and day out. All day. Everyday. And what happens to you? You just become more and more resilient. More strong. More immune. Now you can take more shit than you could have taken a day before. Gradually you settle down with the realisation that this is how stuff works and all you could do is tolerate it. Not to forget that in the process you would have given some nonsensical shit to someone else too. But that's only justified, isn't it? After all what could you do!

Any person even with a little class and character, after a certain point in time would want to fight back against this system. Show it the rightful place it belongs to, once and for all trying to get rid of it in expectation of a decent trouble free life. Now that's the tough part. Nonsensical situations attack you from all possible angles. Now how much and how long are you going to protect yourself? Forget defensive, even if you go on the offensive, how many people you think you can offend? And when you are looking for solace, the one person you look up to, on that day flipped themselves and ended up giving you a hard time. You don't want to fight with that person! After all, they are your "go to". You sit down with a heavy heart. Sad and full. Thinking to yourself - the world is full of non-sense.

I came, I saw, but felt too lazy to conquer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:42:00 +0000

After so many bad, unproductive, boring, sickening (and a few more bad adjectives) days later, today I had a really nice day. Nothing big though. Just had a workshop to deliver on Data and Dimensional Modelling. But I had been preparing it for what seemed like ages to me. I had initially started it on last to last week's Friday. Then I thought I will finish it over the weekend. The coveted 'weekend' came and passed by without even informing me about its arrival. No probs! I thought. There's one more week to go right. So here I was, trying to prepare for this seemingly mammoth task. I always tried to start by opening up the Business Intelligence Development Studio along with the Word document to write down whatever I did so that I could pass it on to the participants. But I never actually could do more than 2 pages a day. So after one more (working)week, I had 10 pages of 'How To' stuff documented. The weekend was supposed to help me finish the job. Instead, it ruined it by letting me get drunk(Saturday night) and watch movies(Sunday - The Aviator, 300, Passion of the Christ, Teen Patti) all day.

Then came the dreaded D week(something similar to D Day :P). I didn't know what to do. But somehow I was still confident that I can crack it. After all I had not done anything for the past one week citing this ONE reason. Yeah, and I forgot to tell you why I was confident. Tuesday was a holiday as it was a Kannada festival called Ugadi. No goodies to guess what happened that day also. But somehow I managed to do 5 more pages. The workshop begins on Wednesday, and my session on Thursday. But it was funny how I still didn't feel tensed. The 10 minutes of 'away from the whole world' time in the loo was spent on pondering why wasn't I working? Am I not interested or what? Then enlightenment dawned on me. It struck me that all my life I had followed this one principle, which one of my colleague helped me realize a few days back - "when some thing can be done at the eleventh hour, why do it now?" So now that I had the answer to my problem, I felt a lot more free. Whole afternoon and evening on Wednesday was spent on doing what I do best - nothing.

After I came back home, I saw it was The Eleventh Hour. I sat down at 10:30pm, worked till 2:30am, and came up with a 84 page document covering the most simplest to the most complex of concepts. Also things which even I didn't knew existed. Beat that! Finally I delivered the session today, and according to me it was a hit. People liked it and even came up to the dais(where I was packing my laptop) to appreciate and thank me. Only time will say if those appreciations really worked. Eagerly waiting for the feedback results tomorrow :)

I was ROFL while i was writing this

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:23:00 +0000

I find it really strange. Don't know if its funny or what, but it's really strange. Ever observed people who are so happy with using as least letters as possible when they type? There are a few that I know who do that. In fact I never knew what ROFL and LMAO meant until I met this guy. I taught him one also - ABCD(he will surely explain this in the comment). I mean I understand its a pain to write the entire word at times, but this is outrageous. And all these so called acronyms are so badly abused by almost everyone who chats. I mean, Rolling On the Floor Laughing is fine, but imagine Laughing My Ass Off. How can one do that??? Intriguing. I definitely want to see someone laughing his ass off.I wonder how it would look like! Like this maybe -

And then there are those who like to use letters as if they are in abundance. I still haven't been able to understand why Pneumonia, Pseudo, pariS, hJose to mention a few are spelled the way they are. After all we are naive Indians. How would Jose feel if someone pronunces his name as jo-sey, or asks him, ka re jo-sey, tumko pa-neu-monia ho gaya hai kya?

Think... what a pity!

There are several ways to earn

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:11:00 +0000

Well, people like me, who are naive and mostly disinterested most of the times just have one way to earn - from their full time jobs. But if you look around properly, there is not one, two but plenty. One very easy way is to make chu**ya of everyone around you. Ask Roch how to do it. Even I am up for tutorials from him. Another very god way is the internet. Referal schemes, blog posts, ad spaces, content writing etc are hot businesses that fetch loads of money. Google adsense has taken up the center stage here. But whatever you look at, unless you have the flair to do it, you beat around the bush and return to square one - which was the attempt to earn some extra cash. I have absolutely no idea what crap I am writing here. So got to stop now.

My Blog is improving

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:52:00 +0000

Dear All,

I am in the process of improving my blog. I am adding a few new widgets that I think looks good. Please comment liberally and also use the shout box to let me know what you think of it. Theres also an aquarium way down at the bottom. You can feed my fishes by clicking on the white part. So just browse around and keep rocking...

Good Life :)

And then I realized

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:42:00 +0000

Finally I have arrived at the conclusion that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. How you ask? Read on…

I thought work is important. You need to DO THE JOB assigned to you first. Then think of play. Then I found out that no matter how hard you work, unless you work smart, your flight isn’t taking off. That made me kind of dull. Hence after long self realization sessions, I thought I won’t work - come what may. Even that backfired as I had put my own reputation of hard work at stake. Suddenly I had a dawn of enlightenment (yet again). Remember the second line of this paragraph? Yes. Exactly that. I just tweaked it a bit. It now reads – “You need to GET THE JOB DONE assigned to you”. Forget “first”. No matter who does it. And now little jack has all the time in the world to play. I can even do things like wasting your time by making you read this absolutely senseless phase of my life.

Now the first few lines of the last para reads something like this – I think work is important. Think of play. That will give you ideas to GET THE JOB DONE. So you keep on playing while the job is getting done. So far it has been good. It’s just a matter of time till you will find yourself reading another such post from me on self realization and dawn of enlightenment kind of crap.

What we believe is true

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:43:00 +0000

"No matter what they tell us,
No matter what they do,
No matter what they teach us,
What we believe is true."

There are times when things don't go the way you want it. They often go exactly the way you don't want it. Feels like the principles, belief, faith, everything is a shit. But if what they say is true, then whatever we have believed so far, thought so far, lived by so far, don't hold any value. That would mean we have been a living lie all this while.

Keep the flame of faith burning. Let your belief be stronger than the strongest thing in the world. Shit happens. Shit happens all the time. But it is because of this shit happening that our faith is strengthened. So be thankful to it and walk the path called the journey of life, undeterred.

I Inspired

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:21:00 +0000

It gives a real good feeling to see that what you do is at times liked and adored by people around you. It is liked by them so much that they go to the extent of saying - 'you inspire me'. And such is a story about a friend of mine who had 6 first loves and 2 true loves(thats what he Claims - at which i exClaim). He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he has no such "bad habits", and girls dig him. I wonder how. But thats not what I am writing about. I a writing about how what inspired him and how.

He went through mine and Sid's blogs when we both were wasted and lying half dead on my bed. He followed a few more links to check out more blogs, and found that we actually write good stuff without ever intending to do so. We just write what comes to our head right... and not a literary masterpiece - well not always at least. And this is what he liked. The thought of being able to document what's on top of your mind so that later on when you are in all your senses, you can retrace and enjoy all those moments once again. Over and over again. As many times as you want. Like I still enjoy reading my post about earning money and the one with ghosts in it. I cherish those moments. They are an intricate part of my elaborately ugly past, which is as of now lost somewhere, at times intentionally oblivious to me. But I still cherish them.

And Sattu was sold on this idea. He started his own blog which you can find here. Hope this turns out to be a good experience for him. I am sure it will be. After all, he was inspired by me(too :P).

The night that was

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Yet again, I got drunk, spoke crap, did a whole lot of 'harkat' but at the end of the day, for the first time ever, didnt sleep. Been awake since yesterday 8am. That like 24 hours now(WOW!!) but it was good, enriching and fun with all the different kinds of people i was with. Not one had similarities with the other. 3 totally different characters, different types, likes, dislikes, motives, relations blah blah blah.

I am awake not because i was doing something, but just that my bed was occupied along with my blanket. So couldnt sleep in the chill. now that its morning again, i am wondering if i should go to sleep. I chatted with total strangers all night. Most were weird. So was I, I guess. And what else do you expect from a guy who was almost half asleep but didnt sleep just because he wasnt allowed in his own house?

Sweet sleep sacrificed for friendship... the night that was.

Earn Earn Earn

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:54:00 +0000

The internet seems an endless ocean to earn - be it money reputation, fame or maybe something else that I haven't experienced yet. Lets talk about earning money. Lately i had this craze to earn as much extra cash as possible. So I stared to look for sites that would give me job to do. Fortunately I found one and also made a few dollars. But then it struck me, if I am making so much money from a middle man, how much is the middle man making and more so, how much is the person giving out these kind of jobs making!!! I started searching the net like mad. Didnt get any answer. Searched harder, landed somewhere. Got a few answers that clarified the air a bit, but created new confusions. And now, today, I think I finally solved the confusions and I think I am on the right track to earn some decent money. What remains to be seen is if I really at all make any money.

PS: Whoever reads this, please wish me luck :)

Just let off some steam

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:04:00 +0000

feel bad... lonely, broken... dont worry - just read on

call me, i'll be online,

saying its gonna be fine,

dont you worry bout a thing

Go on... Just let off some steam...

- Outlandish

Feel good now?

Gang of Girls... correction - GHOSTS!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:56:00 +0000

This happened... yesterday, i was out at SDF at 2 in the morn, loitering with a colleague. and guess what... we bumped on 3 gorgeous chinkis. One in a sari and the others in formals. We couldnt get our eyes away from them, and kept staring. The typical bollywood thing happened.. bhai saab... time kya ho raha hai? Mike was very eager to answer and so he did....
Discissung the incident in a tea stall at around 6.30 am, the cha dokaner mashi stared at us, and exclaimed. I didnt understand why she was hiding her face. She suddenly enquired about the girls, and confirmed their looks as if she had seen them herself... all she
could say was... bhai, tomra may na, bhoot dekhecho!! (brothers, u hv not seen girls, u saw ghosts!!)
mike is still traumatised...

One Night at my JOB!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:55:00 +0000

huh!! its one of those days(actually nights) again, when im sitting with the phone in my hand, and trying to get the figures goin up. The job's same, but one thing thats good is that its not a call center. Im a BUSINESS DEVELOPER.... wooooooow!! jargons, jargons... man!! these ppl come up with new ways to attract good skills at low rates. And then there are these mentally frustrated bongs, whose girls earn more than them. Is dat a shame! cm on dude! get a life... no comments on that. Hws my job u ask!! well i guess, i wouldnt have been writing this crap, if it was sooooooo exciting. But it sure pays well... literally! Its 6am and time for a stroll at SDF and a garam cha and biskut... good life!!

Getting a job is sooooooo easy!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Yup! u heard that right. Its damn easy - atleast in the IT. Dont bother if the US dollar is goin down, and hence the bulk chucking. If that were the case, probably all the bpo should have been shut down by now, as they are fully dependent on the US market. No matter what happens to the americunts, we Indians will never feel the shortage of jobs atleast for a few years to come. Just get a sales job(read a call center job), as a stop gap, and fill the greens in ur pocket. Dude, u'll play with 5 figure sal, in just 3 months... if ur good enough. Sector 5 in Kolkata is a gr8 place to start from... Good Life ;)

Me, Job and Books...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:16:00 +0000

hoodi baba!! thats a tough one. At the dead of the night, when the whole world is sleeping, only a few people are awake... the night watchmen, goons, gangsters, theives and ofcourse - us, the call center guys. In office, u put up a lot of faces to talk to the americunts(sorry for that), to get business and earn perks, but is all that worth it? There are different perspectives to look at it. Yes, its exhausting, frustrating, pressurising, overloading and all other 'ing' in the world. U have ur target or meet etc. but you get paid for that, and a handsome amount at that! Take ur girl out, go to the restaurant that she always wanted to go to, see all the movies, go to the pub as many times as you want, have lots of beer and still have something to give to your parents, so they feel, what a responsible child they got. And what do you have at the end of the day??? satisfaction for all the hard work that went into the entire process.
As for books... what are they??

Black as in Beauty or Black as in Black Outs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:59:00 +0000

You guys must be pondering, why in the world did I choose black of all the colors in the world... the answer is simple my friends... the color code for black is 000h, ie it requires least intensity of red, green and blue lights, so requires less charge, so requires less power, so consumes less electricity, so saves energy, so that i can prove myself to be a conservationist, so i can set an example for all my peers to be so. Come on guys.. its true - we are the future, atleast for the next 40 odd years, and i surely dont wanna live in the dark amid all the pollution. So get the message, and start saving.

PS: The electricity that we waste by putting our electronic gadgets on standby in a day, if saved, could light a house in an Indian village for a day.

Welcome to the GOOD LIFE...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Hi all! This is Vivek aka Vincent. Out of Kolkata, me doing B.Tech, as well as working to meet my sansarik needs. I donno what to write in my first blog, so please forgive me if you dont find anything interesting. As for the name of the blogspot, me thinks it is evident... he he he. Look out for more, as me just ordered a truck full of materials which is on its way... good life!