A Year has Gone by

A year has gone by....

A year or actually more has gone by since I started writing on this blog. I completely agree that I have not been active on this blog page and the very few followers of my blog who are also my friends know that not writing on my blog does not mean that I don't stop, don't live in the moment, don't think of the moment, or don't reflect... Of course, it also does not mean that I have forgotten that this blog exists... It just means I am not writing on it or for it. But, my memories are there, they are building perhaps they have found different ways of being translated and not fading away...

Well, then why did I ever start this page? (If I had other means to ensure the memories don't fade) you may ask me..

If you have read all the posts especially the first one, you may know that this blog page was to help me pen some of the interesting thoughts and incidents I reflect upon so that memories don't fade and even today memories are there and have not faded... in fact there are more memories and ones that give me lots of learning but am not sure if I can write up an article for every memory. I am not sure not because I can't write. In fact, the one beautiful thing I have learnt in my masters degree here in London is to Write and Write and Write and honestly, I have started enjoying it so much more that I am regretting the fact that the course is towards its end and I will now have to keep up with finding ways to write (hopefully the blog will be one of the avenues for that)

Therefore, it is not my laziness of writing that has stopped me from writing more here, I think I have just become reflective and have also realised that I don't need to pen everything down, some things are most beautiful in silence and not words. I have also come to realise I cannot keep up with writing every memory as I will never be able to do that keeping the wide spectrum of my learning and also my course work here which takes most time and in future my teaching and work responsibilities which I am sure will keep me happily busy.

But, I also know the value of writing my ideas in articles, my world views, my perceptions towards various aspects of life (may be even death) and therefore I will write. I will keep that blogger in me alive and never let her fade. 

However, now my posts will actually be expressing my ideas, world view and also future action views... 
Keep at it to read some very different writings which are on their way....


New post coming soon. 

Smile :) 

Community

There are certain topics which I think of writing about but then step back… Why?? Well, for the sole reason that I wonder if I can do justice to it in words. Questions like will words express my feelings the way they should, will the reader know what am I trying to say?

Hmmm.. so there have been certain topics which I hope I will be able to write on someday. However, today I have gathered courage to discuss one such topic- Community. I hope I can express what I wish to about my thoughts on community and its significance

So what is a community? A community comprises group of people who come together for a common purpose or reason- could be because they belong to the same educational institute, work organization, social organization or follow one faith and its principles.

As we grow up, I think we all wish to belong to one community even if that means to belong to a community which does not recognize the concept of community at all, but somewhere and at some point each one of us engages in community interactions, community actions and community relations.

Thus, community is something which we do recognize and that makes me wonder then that what is the need or significance of a community? And, how it may affect and shape a person?

I would like to use my personal example here. The community I am referring to is my faith community or religious community- something with which I was attached to even before I understood what it meant to me or how significant it was in my life. As I came into this world, after family, the community embraced me as a new entrant. I think my journey with the community began from there and carried on through various interactions with its members as I grew up. It continues till today as I interact with different age groups in the community. My community made me understand that there are like minded people atleast in terms of perceiving faith in my community. However, it also introduced me to people who though belong to the same community perceive the faith and its principles differently. However, the different approaches that members of the same faith community take towards faith need not separate them but can bring them together to dialogues and discuss. This virtue of dialogue and appreciating the diverse approaches to the same subject itself builds a strong, diverse and pluralistic community. 

Here, I cannot but emphasize that when I am talking about dialogue between members of a community who may disagree on subjects, it is to highlight that a community need not have people who are absolutely the same in their approach to things around them. They may be carrying different perceptions about almost everything but that does not create a drift in the community it can instead engage them in enquiry and understanding of different perceptions. This itself could be significance of a community which shapes a person wherein he/she is aware of different perceptions and can engage in this diversity without feeling of discomfort. This engagement can make a person not only confident but humble and modest individual who respects sentiments of different humans on this earth.

I think I owe a lot to my community for making me the person I am today, for preparing me to take challenges, having faith in things and also for accepting that each person can think differently and he/she has the right and freedom to express his thoughts so long as they result in dialogue and not debate J

Life: Convenience or beating the Odds??

Hey Readers,

Firstly, apologies for being away.. You see, this Masters programme is getting a bit challenging. Without wasting time to outline my work here, let us move into a topic which I think has been on my mind for a long time but I never got the opportunity to write about it. 

Life: A matter of convenience or beating the Odds

So though I have always been thinking of do people take decisions in life or make choices in life simply because they are convenient? it is something that has bothered and made me ponder upon what really matters to people? I am writing about this today because of a very interesting conversation I had with a friend, due to some experiences and to help my readers reflect on some decisions they took in life. After all this blog is not only about me, it is also for my readers to reflect and hopefully take away something from it.. 

More often than not, I have come across people who fear taking a decision which requires one to be persistent, which is time consuming or which in short requires going against the convenient option. Why? I ask myself... I think the answer lies in the question itself.. CONVENIENCE..

This word may seem small and simple as it simply means something which is easy or simplifies matters.. however, it cannot be as simple as that after all. When we do something convenient, I think we do take a back seat from going that extra mile. Sometimes, we take a convenient decision or make a convenient choice which may be superb for us and our convenience but unfortunately it ignores the other person in the trade off and also the larger good. The convenience option I think is a result of modernization because in these times- 
we shop for convenience
products are marketed for convenience
we follow a certain society and culture because it is convenient
we decide travel options as per convenience
we meet people and decide places to meet as per convenience 
we also decide who we wish to be around based off convenience 
we also decide our political parties in a democratic set up based on convenience..
All of the above is done to save time and more important to not fight against the odds.

Therefore, though I don't completely disagree with the aspect of convenience and perhaps it makes sense to take decisions and make choices for convenience, let us step back a little and think more about these decisions or choices.. What do we lose when we take all our decisions based on solely the convenient option.  
 We may lose the support of some valuable people, we may also lose that sense of potential of a humankind to beat the odds and challenges and sometimes which is the worst to happen we may become selfish in our decision, thus ignoring the larger good. 
Let us think of this through an example which is appropriate at this point since we are in the month of Muharram (commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain) 

Imam Hussain is a known figure to Muslims and non Muslims alike he had two options- 
the first convenient option was to turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the problems of the people and the injustice they were facing. In this case, he had to just look after himself and his family and forget the world- it did not matter- there was no need to fight for the people.
The second was to fight for the larger good, for the people and against injustice the people were facing due to some decisions made by their ruler- Yazid.

Well, as we all know he chose the second and most inconvenient option which led to not only his family's brutal death but also his own life came to an end. He did not choose the most convenient option and that is exactly the reason various historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi have looked upon his ethos as an inspiration in their struggles for the larger good. 

The above example will hopefully illicit some reflections in your mind-
When did I take a decision which was not only about keeping me in the decision making process?
When did I go with an inconvenient option for the larger good?
Which decision of mine did affect someone negatively or positively?
Which decision did I fear to take as it required me to beat the odds/ was challenging and time consuming? what decision did I take seeing these challenges?
Did I completely step back or did I think of the bigger picture? 

These questions will hopefully make you think once more the next time you choose an option simply because it is the convenient one.
Life after all is not simply about convenience, it is about having the courage to beat the odds and seeing the larger good :)

Teacher and her happiness

It's been a while I have not written on this blog... I remember my purpose of writing this blog was to make a beginning to my writer instinct. This blog was to play the role of a writer inside me who can easily put into words her thoughts on a subject... Today, however I feel this instinct has been easier said than done.

At times, I have typed long posts, at times short, some published and some unpublished, while some posts or thoughts just remained in my thoughts as strands of ideas to build connections at later point, where or when this point will come is mysterious. There were topics that interested me for a while and I thought, " I have to blog about this." With time, I felt, "Nahhh", let it pass... Some other time...

The reason why I am mentioning the above is to make my readers understand that you may not always express something you feel in words or actions, but feelings and experiences are always there and add a lot to a person's identity and existence. Just the way, I feel and experience a lot but unfortunately cannot write all my feelings and experiences on this blog, I am sure there are many who feel and experience a lot but more often than not our busy lives never give us the time to reflect on these feelings and experiences as well as their causes and effects...

I can vouch the time issues we all face in this century. Whilst am doing my double masters programme in London, I know how difficult it is to get some time out for oneself. The question to be raised here, " Do I do what keeps me happy amidst my busy life?"

In this world, we may be out to please people and the society around us and in that race of pleasing all, sometimes we forget to please ourselves and look out for our own happiness... However, I know that as a person I always try to keep people around me happy though I may not be doing to the best of my ability at times, but the intention and efforts are always present. As far as, I am concerned, I feel there is a need also to keep oneself happy as your personal happiness becomes a route to keeping others happy :)

For me, being a teacher has helped me be happy and keep others happy...
Today, I can say that when I walk into a classroom, I know I am going there with a feeling of making sure that my students learn something which they not only learn for the classroom purpose but carry it outside and beyond that classroom environment...
I know that not all of them are perhaps interested in everything we discuss or learn in the class but my ability to instill curiosity in them and give them the ability to further explore our discussions is the key to our happiness as a class....
I also understand that I cannot expect them to be as enthusiastic about learning on all days but yes my happiness in teaching and positive energy levels should perhaps rub off them and make them feel motivated and positive of being in the classroom..
I unfortunately have to touch on a sensitive issue here... I also know that some of my students are not coming from a very friendly or positive home atmosphere but I should be able to treat all equally and make them feel that life will unfold many opportunities for them to find their happiness and give them the signs and ladders to their success and unending happiness...
As a teacher, I always strive for the above and I can say I have been more successful than I thought I would be...for which I thank the Almighty.

There have been days where I myself have not been feeling at my best but my main motive of making my students happy and making a difference to their lives has ensured that this remorse in my life never affects them adversely. At all times, their happiness has come before me :)

At the end of the day, I have come to realise a teacher is after all someone who spreads more than the curriculum learning, she brings happiness to students :)

Life is what we make it

Life is what we make it or rather make of it..

One year has passed as a student in London, I wonder sometimes What has come and What has gone? What has changed me for the better or the worst?
Life is what we make it after all and as you may have earlier read in one of my posts it is highly influenced by the choices we make in life... or the decisions we take in our life... not all these decisions are appropriate but at the end of the day they all teach you something about yourself, about others around you and that is how perhaps you discover and rediscover yourself...
In this one year, I learnt a lot about the city, my course (after all I better do that), more than anything I made new friends and I am sure I learnt a lot from them
Now it is going to be a new beginning and am sure the bonds with friends will get stronger, but I have realised one thing as a person, a friend, a sister and a daughter that the stronger you make bonds with people, the more attachments are created...
Now the question I ask myself is.. Why these attachments?? What is the need of being attached?? But somethings just happen and one cannot always have control over them.
It is obviously a given fact that we as intellectual humans who think for ourselves and our actions are a result of our thoughts should have more control over situations. This control over situations can perhaps happen when we take charge of our mind.. Why only mind? infact we must take charge of our mind, body and soul. We must organize our life around the way we wish to, just the way we make attempts to plan our career, our education, our daily chores and schedules, we must attempt to take charge, think and decide who we wish to build stronger bonds with..But, like I mentioned sometimes we do not have control over situations...
This control over situations is lost when we are thinking from our heart perhaps.. because it is the mind which should think and not the heart... heart is supposed to feel and internalise what the mind thinks... but the thinking responsibility is obviously of the mind..
Hence, the day we completely disconnect our heart from our mind we will be able to take control over situations and rightly say that our actions and attachments are a product of a mind and Life is after all what we make of it. 

The past connections...

The past connections…

Often we hear statements such as: “Live in the present.” or

“Forget the Past.” Or better still “There is nothing in the past only think of the present and plan your future.”

When I hear such statements, I ask myself: Should we only live in the present and forget our past?

I think as an individual it becomes very difficult for me to think only of what is happening around me and finding no connection of this present to my past. Today as a writer on this blog and hopefully as an author in the future, I think certainly my past is going to influence my present and future writing. The simplest example is this blog article itself. Nowadays in this fast paced world where people perhaps live just for the present, may be they never realise how their past connects to their present and influences their future as who has the time to dwell into the past and reminisce about it. But, I can always feel those connections….

I am not disagreeing here with people who think that if holding onto their past is restricting their progress in the present hence it is better to forget the past. This makes sense and I certainly feel that nothing should stop you from making progress in this world. But, to think of it, hasn’t your past experiences where you have not been able to progress due to any circumstances had a strong influence on the decisions you take in life today which help you climb that ladder of success. Does this mean, no matter if we realise it or not we are constantly learning from our past and thereby planning the steps we take in the present.

Today, in one way or another we all are learning from our past and though we may claim to forget it, it actually forms a strong part of our present existence and identity. Let us look at a few ways of how our past connections shape our present perceptions:

A ruler or leader will always look at the past leaders and what helped them to lead effectively or what restricted their leadership being effective and learn from it to make his decisions as a leader. This is the reason where histories of a nation, place and culture affect the life and leadership at present. We have various examples of leaders in history who have failed to become effective leaders if they could not gauge the past experiences and expectations of people which influence the present day society.

A businessman will see his peers past experiences or his personal past experiences to understand which venture will result in more returns and better business opportunities.

A young child whilst preparing for academics will learn from past mistakes and try to ensure that those mistakes are not repeated.

A child as young as 2 or 3 years old will stay away from the fire lit by matchstick if he has got slightly burnt from it in the past.

A mother who due to some circumstances has had a miscarriage will be extremely cautious when she is pregnant again.

A teacher will never repeat the same lesson plan in class as it is if it did not work effectively in the previous class.

The above are just a few instant examples that occur to me when I thought of writing this article on how the past connections are always influencing our present perceptions and decisions. I am certain an avid reader will during his personal reflections come up with more such examples. But that is something I would like my reader to explore himself/herself.

I think by now the readers of this blog understand that my purpose for writing these blog articles as I had mentioned in my first article is to rediscover myself and may be at times pose some questions and share some thoughts with my readers which will make them ponder upon some aspects of life which are often overlooked.

Today, the way I am as a person has not occurred by itself. I am sure as a person I have transformed and transformed through my past experiences which have made me the person that I am. There are some days when the pleasant past experiences make me more confident and strong as an individual. There are also some unpleasant past experiences which make me reflect upon instances where things could have been different but unfortunately were not. Whether, pleasant or unpleasant experiences, my past helps me shape my perceptions and present decisions.

I am sure that the readers of this blog article will at some point reflect on how their past creates connections…. For their present.

Choices in Life

Choices in Life....


      A statement I came up with randomly during a conversation with a close friend. A statement I always ponder upon and thus always get associated with even on days when I am not really thinking about the choices I make in life...." I choose what I want to be, but these choices are hard to make..." 


     Choices in Life.... 


   So let my readers understand me better today than they have ever in the past... 


I choose to be a person who always smiles and keeps people around her happy..


I choose to be a teacher after having acquired the best of Management education and experiencing a wonderful corporate career...


I choose to be a loving daughter, an affectionate sister, a caring friend and a trustworthy human...


   Though I choose to be a lot more than the above stated three statements but for the purpose of making this an interesting read I choose only the above three statements because they are closest to my existence and identity and have a lot to be said about me and my journey of making choices in life...


  Today, I don't know why is this occurring to me again and again and hence I thought I should pen it down on a blog the Choices we make in Life... Not all those choices may be appropriate but they appropriately help us discover, rediscover and come closer to ourselves... 
I am certain some of the choices I made in life were perhaps not appropriate but they made me understand the difference between this world and the Other (however let us keep that for another post) 


  To avoid deviation let us come back to the three statements I stated above:
1. I choose to be a person who always smiles and keeps people around her happy..
Is this choice hard to make?? well, more often than not it is easy to make this choice... When I smile or go an extra mile to keep others happy around me, I feel good and happy myself. It is as if when you give some happiness, you get a hundred back and that is what I experience on most days of my life. However, there are those days when I forget the purpose of humankind and think what is the point of keeping others happy if that is making me sad? and these are the days when I ask myself is my happiness alone while I make someone else sad really worth that happiness... Is it ever worth it to build your castle on someone's broken hut?? and obviously the answer is never worth to do that.. so again as I said this is not an easy choice it seems to be the best one...to smile and keeps others happy..


2. I choose to be a teacher after having acquired the best of Management education and experiencing a wonderful corporate career...
This is the one choice in my life which required courage and determination and obviously may seem to be a hard one. At the age of 23 out from a flourishing management education and wonderful corporate career, the choice to take a career shift and choose to be a teacher did not come easy to me, but came naturally. I can still reminisce the day I decided to shift from a Unit Manager to a Teacher and to pursue further education. It asked for determination and dedication but I am sure it has been worth it.. Today I feel like this is what was meant to be and some choices which seem the hardest are the ones we really appreciate as they truly bring us closer to ourselves. Today, I feel I could have been nothing else but a Teacher. Don't ask me how as I said it came naturally to me.
Somethings we choose in Life and somethings Life chooses for us perhaps. 


3. I choose to be a loving daughter, an affectionate sister, a caring friend and a trustworthy human..
These choices seem a blessing in disguise and I have never struggled with them as they are the blessings of God. It has been easier to be the above, there have just been those days when I have expected a lot from myself and may be due to the high expectations I have had for myself, I have been hurt of not keeping up with them. But then, am only human..


When I think of the above, I tell myself life is all about making choices after all, choice between right and wrong, between sane and insane, between yours and other happiness, between truth and lie and at the end, all we mankind is left with is the repercussions of choices we make in life. 


However in these days I remember the famous quote... 
"even man struggles to be human."