Friday, May 31, 2013

Who are We? Where are we going?

P.S. - I don’t know philosophy.

shall be turning 25 and the world still amazes me. Well, the amazement lies neither in the underwater fauna nor some outer-world asteroids. It rests in basic things that human beings do. The way people decide, prioritize and act. The reader here might be a 17 year old high school graduate waiting for his results or a 31 year old boy/girl waiting to get married. The sample may also include a 48 year old cashier sitting in his office or a 24 year old girl who recently married somebody she never knew.

If we could know who are we?
Who are we?

I still look avenues beyond truth and capability in finding myself. I failed. The question haunts me like a somnambulist who haunts his own peaceful nights in oblivion. Most of us don’t know what we were meant to be in this world. We were born and that followed a list of random tasks that dented us into what others wanted us to be. Hard Fact. So, who are we? Are we the ones who run after money and keep wasting our best years of time? Or, the ones who are ready to die to go viral on the social network? Or, the ones who carry their family bastion and roll the family silver in grass and hash? Or, the regular managers who give their subordinates their peace of mind? Or, the naive job-seeker who did everything that the world spelt correct to get employed? Or, an individual caged in an iconic buildings waiting for attention? Or, an upcoming artist (photographer, writer, band-member etc) waiting for the big break? AND, the ones who are still in the journey to know who are we?

It may be a boring set of questions and there may be a striking chance that it would not have covered all samples of personalities or would have matched the reader’s current situation. But the answer to all the questions is same and unknown. 
The tryst between existence and purpose remains unattended unsolved and gets complicated as times pass, days go and years change.
Are we heading anywhere?
Where are we going?

Today, we live in a world of jobless growth and unprecedented polarity. The 80-20 rule is now no more applicable when I talk about the financial polarity. By now we don’t know our identity so it is difficult to say where we would be heading to. But as human beings we are well known among ourselves to figure out the solutions to problems of unimaginable complexity. The television sets keep on flashing so called ‘News’ depicting money laundering, corruption, rapes, success stories (rarely), murder stories and so on. For regular people like most of us, it gives a view to the daily course of events happening around or with us. So are we going in the direction of a humane less future? This isn't being negative in any aspects, rather it is being practical in all aspects. And lets not forget the vices that the media misses to report. The daily pressures that we meet in our lives related to success, work, marriage, money and sustenance. This makes me feel like a blind traveler hoping to feel the breeze that blows around the Seven Wonders of the World.

So, Who are we AND Where are we going?

Are we The Angry Birds?
They say there is a thin line between existence and living. We might not be knowing our identity and our reason to exist but we know one thing in our lives better than what others tell us. We very well know that what we are doing! And if most of the things we do doesn't make us happy. It gets us money though that helps us doing some of the stuff that creates an illusionary happiness. 
The ways to be successful and the ways to be satisfied never meet and everyday we tend to drift from the latter.

What are we doing?

We are all searching things that make us happy. We try to make ourselves available around people and places that we think can make us happier - knowingly or unknowingly. And in this quest, we tend to lose the major chunk of time that result in unhappiness. Strange and True. We tend to keep items of materialistic values like gadgets, cosmetic items, and travel badges and so on around us to keep that illusionary happiness alive. I often see people doing secretive stuff that may range from keeping hobbies to scoring flings. Secrets keep us grounded. But still the question stands tall. We actually don’t know what are we doing and tend to do stuff that majority of human looking creatures around us do. Some tend to go a step further when they lose their integrity and intellect while coping with ‘people’ around them. 
Most of the times we keep ourselves busy in filling the gaps of the past. The gaps may be enlisted as a failed relationship, a broken dream or a mounting loan (for car, degrees etc.) 
We all are now turning into instruments of searching things that make us stand out from the others. In due course of events, we are losing wisdom to the search engines available and tend to believe them as messengers of God (whose existence is still doubted).

I read a book titled ‘Into the Wild’ by Jon Krakauer. It is a story about a boy who tries to know the reason behind his existence and dies in the end. Many of you might have read the book or would have watched the movie. Try and get connected with your own selves instead of getting connected with the whole world on the go...!

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed"
- Into the Wild, Jon Krakaeur.

 Amit Purohit
 The Lone Soldier
Share

Monday, February 25, 2013

Smiling in Tough Times





Jotting all the possibilities of an uncertain life and watching a shriveled golden butt of a rolling paper, I sat on a broken pave that was said to be built by a philanthropist.
Am ‘OMNI’ loaded with school kids passed by leaving dirt on the roads kissing the air around me and a little child was literally thrown out of the crowded cab. I smiled; he pondered and smiled at me again. The kids that made themselves comfortable at the back of the cab waved at me.

The little gesture relieved me of something I was rattling off my heads with. It was almost suffocating to hang out in the OMNI yet the children were happy. A child can teach a man in despair a lot of lessons. Many of the gestures these little angels make go unnoticed. I was surrounded by four children in my own house. However, I never saw what they did in their daily dose of doings. I never observed how they tackle ‘failure’ or ‘indifferent behavior’; the lexicon they might have been oblivion of.  What was next? I donned my  Sherlock hat and started looking around. 

10 minutes later…

One of my nieces came to me and then started a funny conversation:

Niece : Aley Chachu!! Mujh me naa bahut taakat agai hai
I : Kaise?
Niece : Dadi boli roti khaegi to taakat ayegi. Maine to 2 roti khali.

She showed her cute biceps and said these words in a conviction I hardly carried, with even one of the most empirical formula I remembered during my engineering. I was taken aback and I tried her to give her conviction a hard time. The conversation continued…

I : Kahan hai teri taakat?
Niece: Dikhau taakat.
I : Ha dikha.

She gasped one of my fingers in her tiny hands took me to the wooden table that was kept in the center of my room. She pushed the table hard and succeeded. Her eyes glared in victory.

Niece : Dekha chachu meri taakat!!!

I was almost blown with the simplicity in which she carried what she believed in at the age of 4. Honestly, I don’t have that mannerism in carrying off what I believe at 24.

I was feeling a little bit conscious now as the fundamental lessons of life were articulately present in kids who never knew what Algebra and Astrophysics was. And then came one of my cutest and youngest niece from the other room.She was giving her Nani a tough time by juggling things kept on the center table. She then fell and was hurt by the edge of the table. Her Nani went nuts and then started a heated conversation between two women, one of the ages 3 and 58.

Nani  (with all fire in her eyes) : Chali jaa yaha se hum nai rakhenge tujhe…!

I was startled. Had anyone would have said me this; I would have thrown my boot in front of his face and would have left the face, grumbling about never to come back.
Niece : Nai mai to tikne aayi hu yaha pe. Nai jaungi
Nani (In a higher pitch) : Nai chali jaa.
And then what my niece did was out of my worldly senses. She came close to her Nani and tried to entangle her (Nani) big tummy in her arms. She smiled and said:

Niece : Nai jaungi. Yahi rahungi…!!!

Looking at the gleam of innocence in her eyes, her Nani melted like an ice on a frying pan. She was almost in tears looking at the little kid. And I was lost in the thoughts of how easily can indifferent behavior be tackled.

Life seems tougher and is tough but some days can be made easier if we try and find reasons to smile. And yes smiling is contagious and chronic; just keep riding the virus it caused. 


It is simple to carry a smile, even in tough times…!Came across a song by Raghu Dixit. Sing with me:

“Aaj bhi tu dekhta hoga,
Kahin dur saatwan aasman,
Kaise khoya jaa raha hai apne aap me insaan,
Hey Bhagwan! Mujh ko tu zindagi dobara de de…!!!”

---Amit Purohit (The Lone Soldier)




Share

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Haddi Mode


2013 : Let me Lead...!
Many of us believed and thought that 2012 was one of the longest and toughest years in their lives. Some of us even took life changing decisions in the year and realized the ways to the real journey beyond the meadows and against the tides. Some of my friends were shattered in the first 10 days of the New Year and thought the 2012 cataclysm hasn’t deserted their lives.

Let’s stop winding the clocks back and ring in the New Year with some fresh pieces of music and few liters of wine.

So, the next question gets fired: ‘Huh! What is it that you got new?’

I don’t have anything new but I would like to share with you an inside story about people management in the leading institutions and industries in my country and abroad.

It is going the ‘Haddi’ (Read: Bone) way.  

The Haddi Fight
Recently, one of my close friends and advisor to life decisions was boarding an overseas flight to his work place. Every Business Unit Leader wants him to be the lead in his team. In interesting course of events, he coined this term when I asked so what does the Big Boss (Business Head) wants you to do?

And he said nobody knows what is to be done. But everyone wants the Haddi. And I was startled and said him to repeat the lexicon. Then he said in some clearer diction. HADDI He said everyone wants him in their team but no one bothers what and where the ‘Haddi’ wishes to go. We shared a good laugh and then the flight untwined its wings and kissed the clouds to the deserts of dates where oil is cheaper than milk…!

The Haddi and the Boss
Every working guy is like a Haddi today. The top administrators wish to have a multi-toothed gear with them who can shift numbers as the terrain changes. It is same as now an engineer (or an accountant) and then a logistics guy; Now a researcher and then a procurement guy. Every second organization including the art Industry is hunting Haddi. He sings well may even act, so take him on board. Here is a B.Tech with an MBA, take him board; may solve some shop floor problems.

So, when people come to me with their logic saying Multi-tasking is the new thing on the dash board, I smirk and say, “Do hell with the domain expertise and let the fire clouds from the oil tankers of some oil company shake hands with the clouds in the skies!!!”

Let’s come out of our offices and observe the Haddi thing in some personal arena. Your own sibling or you would be the haddi of the family if you or he/she is successful and single. Every aunt, neighbor or some distant relative would come to you with marriage, business or even career proposals and would like to get the haddi on their platter and precisely in the same order…

If you are not contended with whatever state of affairs you are onto and someone is coming for you and trying to pull you in his/her business, just smile and activate the Haddi Mode in your life…!
Sing aloud and join me:

Ek rang guniyo ka nirala,
Ek rang agyani...
Rang Rang me Hod Lagi hai,
Rang Rangi Manmani…

(Song : Des Mera Rangreziya Babu, Peepli Live, Composer : Indian Ocean)

Amit Purohit
The Lone Soldier

Share