I am not sure where I read this or how I found this quote. But what I knew was, this is the quote of my life.
My favorite is : “Never find yourself living without learning“.
You can find this quote added to my LinkedIn and Medium profiles.
Why do I love this?
From the moment we wake up to the end of the day, we live in curiosity. And what is this curiosity for? The never-ending questions about facts, stories, and more. What if we do not learn anything from any of these questions, will we be satisfied? I will not be!
Your energy, your mind, looks for something new, something which can make you more energetic, goal-oriented. When we do not have that passion within, we are living dead.
Any task you give me in life is a lesson I learn. Any person I meet provides valuable insights. If not, try to learn from them.
I start questioning my life when I do nothing and learn nothing. I think about all the not-so-good lists and aspects of my character.
Keep learning and the curiosity of learning is what makes life beautiful.
This happened in the year 2019. My pgmates made an impromptu plan for trekking in Ramanagar. It is the iconic place where the Sholay movie was shot.
Early morning we woke up. We took a bus to the camping area. The package was provided for the trekking and other activities. It was mango forest group which organized this camping. This was for 2 days and 1 night stay in a tent.
This was the first time I had an overnight stay in a small tent. My goodness, the trekking was the most terrifying experience. There was one temple at the top of the hill, which had to be climbed barefoot. We thought the rocks would have linear steps. To our surprise, it seemed like some kids had made a path in the rocks. Even the elderly people were climbing smoothly barefoot. Meanwhile, we young ones were holding each other while climbing with our shoes.
The experience to reach to the top was worth it. The camping was worth it. The morning we woke after camping, we had amazing views. The activities in those hills are adventurous. They are scary at the same time.
The risky decision I took in life, which I do not regret, is resigning a job. There was no other offer inline at that time.
I am a career oriented person which means I put my career first then the rest. Sometimes it is good to be career oriented. However, I was on the bad side of it. I will ignore my health or other priorities when it comes in front of work.
I took a software job with the expectation of learning new things. I also wanted a salary that could fill my pocket. But things turned out ugly in the first company. I was on the verge of a breakdown in my health and learning. The second jump was a desperate one where I searched randomly and had an offer, and decided to move ahead.
After 2 years in the second company, I was draining emotionally and mentally. Somehow I did not feel I got the right work or the money. To add fuel to it, the minimalist hike was given to me. Money was not everything to me. However, I had a feeling that I deserve more than this. I realized I am not a right fit here.
Did not take a back up or had interviews lined up, one morning I resigned. No overthinking, no drama just a sudden email to my manager. But that was only for that moment. Then the nervousness, fear and something being not right and what not. All the bad dreams or thoughts began. What if I remain unemployed? What if I have to move out of this place? There was a long list of what ifs.
3 months of this draining overthinking and the search during notice period. Still nothing in hand. I gave up and I felt this is the worst decision I have made.
1 week to the last day of the company, I cleared all rounds of an unknown company at those times. It might have been a desperate move but I decided to join and then never looked back.
That one risky decision turned out to be the best one where my entire career took a turn. I got the work I wanted, I got the pay that satisfied my mind. Obvious frustrations of IT jobs are still there and the politics around never fails to surprise me. But ignoring all these, I did take a huge leap of faith. I trusted myself when I made that decision.
If I think about it now, I cannot be that person again. Life sometimes is so unplanned, what we think and what we act are in two different directions.
There are many things that makes me nervous in the daily life. I get nervous most when I am not confident about what I am speaking. I also feel nervous if I am blabbering something without prior knowledge and someone confronts it.
If I am given a topic that makes me uncomfortable, and the audience is large, I would tremble. A large audience makes me nervous. I would start shivering.
I start saying some random stuff to mingle into some group. It may not be convincing, but it still makes the conversation. If someone confronts that I am lying or that is not the truth, again the fear enters the body.
The thing about nervousness, what I understand is if you give the power to it, it engulfs you more. Nervousness is common, even a famous person speaking in front of million people will have it. The difference is they do not care about the audience. Once the speech starts flowing, there is no stop to it.
Nervousness doesn’t mean you’re not good, they mean you care.
From childhood me and my brother both were fond of cats and dogs. We had submitted an application to Mom for having it in house but got rejected. The reason being we will play with those all along and at the end mom would have to maintain them.
Of course you might have heard or read this in all stories from the Indian Household to get pets right?
But that did not stop the fondness in them. Whenever there is a cat or puppy roaming around from another home, we would start playing with it. The irony is whenever my parents are at home, no one comes to visit. They somehow know when kids are there. They jump the wall. They roll around to look cute in front of us.
My first wallpaper on facebook from net ❤️The wallpaper from the net
Cats and Dogs both are genius in different ways. One behaves like an owner and another manipulates you to surrender yourself.
Now which do i like most ? I did not find an answer until I looked at my old wallpapers and posts shared. It was always cats ❤️🩹. No hatred towards dogs. I like them when they are puppies. However, when they are all grown up, not all are my favorite. But cats whatever it might be, kitten or a grown up, they are best. Sorry dog lovers but cats win in smartness.
The model pose
So Am I a mad lover of cats, maybe not. Otherwise by hook or crook there would have been a cat in my home. But for sure I might try that out one day. Cats can be called as ambiverts may be, hence matching my interest 😁.
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
This is in 2009 when I had to have surgery because of certain health conditions. At those times the surgery amount was in lakhs and even though my parents were earning, the amount was quite larger than what they had saved for years.
Dad somehow arranged the money by hook or crook , surgery was successful and then came as a surprise to my dads bank account. It was the same amount back into the account. Dad wondered who did this!! Then comes a call from my distant relative of mothers family. He said : This is for my cute tiny little rachana. Not expecting anything in return.
Background to the story, he used to send greeting cards every new year with the message to me and brother as tiny little kids even though we were all grown up. My mother and him grew up together in the same house so those both were close cousins( sorry I am bad in the family tree explanation!!). Every time I wondered why he had so much concern with our family.
But the time when had sent money to my father, that day he became a favourite for me. Even though we never talked , I will always have good feeling when I think of this relative.
In this selfish world , if there is even one selfless guy who gives money out of respect and nothing is expected in return then you are lucky !!
My grandmother is one of the special people in my life for a variety of reasons. I am, who I am because of her.
For most of my childhood I have been taken care of by my grandmother. My working mother was always busy with her work. During those times, I became close to my grandmother. Maybe that’s why I am more like her than my mother.
She used to run behind me for making me finish the food and coffee she made for me. My grandmother’s usual morning routine was to wake up. Then she would get freshened. After that, she started preparing neer dose and coffee for the family. When I woke up all these things were ready and my parents would have left the office already. My grandmother starts calling my name continuously to have the food and coffee.
When the weekend arrived , I used to spend time with her in various ways. She became a widow at a very young age. Her fondness for nail polish, bhindi, kumkum, ornaments, and flowers never stopped even though being a widow. In those times , it was not a culture for widows to do these things. I must say she was brave and followed her beliefs without fear. Whenever I brought a new color of nail polish, she would come behind me. She would ask “Nangu haaku” 😃 cutely, which translates to “Put on me as well”. I was her favorite grand kid and she used to take me wherever she goes.
She is one of the most talkative people I have ever seen in life. She can talk the whole day without sleep non stop with one topic to another. So I guess I inherited that from her 🤪. People who have known me for a while have always shouted: “adestu matadthi swalpa silent kutko.” This translates to: “how much do you speak, stay silent for sometime” 😁. Oh here I go again non stop writing as well 😃.
She passed away when I got my new job. Sadly, I could not see her for the last time because I was in Bangalore. I had to join the new company. But I am sure she would be very happy with her favorite grand kids decision of staying back in Bangalore for the job. She would not regret anything in her life and lived through all the hardships.
So Ajji, wherever you are, I still remember you from time to time. I thank you for who you have made me.
There would be one or other busy days in a week where it would be too demanding to handle. You feel like the 24 hours were not enough for you. You complain , murmur at yourself, frown over petty things and then the last stage mental breakdown. It is crucial to sit and unwind the day. At that moment, the only thing you would want is peace.
The moment after the hectic day ends, there would be a long breath of relief. Then you sit just doing nothing. Look at the wall as if there is a ghost there. Simply sit silently across in the hall of your room. Once in a while, call your close friend to vent about the day’s fuss. It feels like a hot cup of ginger tea when you have a cough. You get relief for a while. You get time to smile over the things which mattered. You can ignore the silly worries. When nothing works out, the best medicine is to have a nice sleep. You also take a nap to shut down your body for a while.
The only things that matters is give the time after the busy day for your peacefulness. Let the brain, mind, and body rest for a while. Like all appliances, our body has a shelf life. Appliances can get heated or even explode with continuous usage. Similarly our body will force shutdown if you do not do it yourselves. I forget to often apply this on myself and my body at the end does the force shutdown by itself.
Doing nothing also takes a lot of guts. At the end, the next day your brain will make you feel regretful for wasting your day. But sometimes, to unwind from overwhelming situations, you need to do nothing. Take a break at least for a while to restart your next day.
It refreshed one instance of my high school story. A decision needed to be made about learning a second language in high school. The options were Hindi and Sanskrit. So the logic was, Sanskrit was the most chosen by all divisions of my class. The reason to choose this language by most was because you could score the highest marks in this language. The exams will have only certain word related questions which will be very easy to write. And where as Hindi you will get questions on certain topics and you have to write paragraphs on it.
Like others, I went along with the huge bunch to choose Sanskrit. I sat in a corner and waited for the Mam to come. But my mind was not satisfied with the decision I made. I ran outside and was standing outside the Hindi class where the Mam had already come. She remembered this instance throughout that year. She mentioned it to my parents. She referred to me as “The one girl who ran to choose Hindi at the last moment”.
There was a poem in our syllabus “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Somehow I landed with that one road where less people took that time in high school.
The poem ends saying
“I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
Choosing Hindi really made a difference. My first writing skill came from the same paragraph questions. These were the questions people feared for. And here I am writing many more!!
Sometimes it is easy to choose what everyone has chosen. However, the path less taken always involves a risk and an unexpected satisfaction.
Here goes a small poem on my dilemma which had been in high school :
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
कश्मकश में सुलझी, दिल और दिमाख उलझी सी
आखिर चुनूं क्या !!!
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
एक थी भाषा जो रूह को सुकून दी
दुसरी थी जो सब भाषा को जनम दी
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
दौड़ पड़ी बाहर और आखिर में सुन ही ली दिल की
दौड़ पड़ी बाहर और आखिर में सुन ही ली दिल की
जीत हुई दिल की और क्षमा मांगी जन्म भाषा को !!!
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
याद है आज भी वो दिन, सब के बीच कोने में बेटी थी एक लड़की
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
I have a very weak book or movie memory. Disadvantage of it is, I will not recollect anything more than a year which was read or watched. The advantage of it is I can read it multiple times or watch it multiple times I guess 😝.
So within the reach of my memory, the character I would want to be is the psychologist from the most viral netflix series Adolescence. Imagine someone giving you a death stare or poking you knowingly and you just do not have any reaction. That kind of strong personality is what I want to be. How hard the conversation is or how insulting or how provoking the opposite person might be pulling up, but you stick to the game plan and have uno reverse to the same person. Once this psychologist is all alone , she puts out all that anger, sadness or emotions she would have taken in while sitting in front of the person. And that is totally fine, after all we are humans, not robots to be emotionless. The goal is not to give the opposite person the chance to have a victory in the case of the worst situations.
ಮನದ ಮಾತುಗಳು ❤️🗣️ 