THINK POSITIVE

One of the properties of water that makes it so easy to store is its liquid state. It takes the shape of wherever you put it in. Be it glass, bottle, tank, and so on. Water adapts its shape as per its surroundings. We don’t realize how difficult would it be to store water if not for its liquid state. That’s just the nature of all the elements in the liquid state.    Likewise, a human mind also adapts to its surroundings. Our mind is directly influenced by the people we interact with daily. It is our subconscious that slowly adopts our mind to our surroundings and before we know, we end up being a person we never thought you would be.   For instance, a person surrounded by people addicted to bad things gets addicted to such things before he even realizes. Similarly, if you are surrounded by people who are dishonest and unfaithful, it’s only a matter of time before you end up being one too. You start justifying all the wrong things you do.   Take a look at the people around y

Dear Dad,   Today it’s been 20 years without you and I have missed you in every stage of my life.     Though I was a kid then, I still remember the day when that saddest moment struck our life. The cries of that day still echo in my ears. It is unforgettable and the wound still is fresh. I never got a chance to say a proper goodbye. This still haunts me and makes me sleepless at night. I have spent countless nights imagining how wonderful would have been our lives if we all were still together.   It was hard growing up without you. But Mom is a warrior. She played the role of you as well. She made life look so easy for us, while she fought the ocean inside her. She used to hide her tears just so that we don’t feel sad. Didi also played a very crucial role in my life. Whenever I was sad, she used to console me like a mother and a best friend. She sacrificed so many of her wishes so that I could fulfill mine.   Both Mom and Didi together showed me the path of righteous living

Before I share my experience with you, I would like to ask you a question. Take your time to answer this question. Which is the most important profession or job or business in the world? Write down your answer on a piece of paper. The answer to the above question is written in the later part of this blog. Let's see if we both agree.  Here’s my experience. About a month or so, it was quite late at night and I was returning home. I decided to fuel up my vehicle just to avoid long Q in the morning. As I entered the fuel station, there was a car already being fuelled up. As I got closer I heard the attendant and car owner quarreling over something. I couldn’t understand what was that about. The car owner drove off after fuelling and before he left he said to the petrol bunk attendant ‘apni aukaat me rehena’.   Next, as the attendant approached me to fuel my car, I asked him what happened. The attendant said that he requested the owner not to talk over the phone at the fuel statio

We millennials often hear people say that things should happen at the right time. One should get a job before 25 and marry before 30 and so on. As if like somebody has laid down a time table of events in our lives, one is forced to follow the same.   Why is so much stress is laid out on these timelines? They are not the physical development of our body to happen in time but mere social things.   These timelines have put most of us under stress. What happens if you get a job or start a business after 30? Well, if you are determined to achieve what you desire nothing can stop you from doing it. So is buying your first home or car or getting married at a later age. These things should happen whenever you are ready and not because they have to happen at a certain age. But that doesn't mean you sit and just wait for the right time to come.    What is the right time you ask?   Well, it’s when you are ready. Let me tell you one thing here. It’s not that your mind will say

I make new year resolutions every year. Most of us do. But, how many of us achieve them? Only a handful. Research shows that only 5% of people achieve their new year goals.   What about the rest? Well, it seems their motivation fades away with time.   This is not only in the case of new year resolution but, in our day-to-day life as well. A simple example is that many of us think of getting up early but when the alarm rings, we snooze it to the next day. Similarly, when we plan for losing some extra pounds, we start with a bang but, only very few keep going. We won’t think of doing it again until we get motivated.   There are two types of motivation. What we look outside is called extrinsic motivation. They are outside factors that influence us to do a task in order to fulfill our desire. It can be the desire for money, luxury things in life, family pressure, pressure from society, and many more. This type of motivation is good only for the short term.     On the other hand

Often people say they have true best friends who are like family and some say they have family who are like best friends. In my case, I am one of the few lucky ones to have both.   Who is a true friend you ask? Well it is quite a bit different from what you think.   Everybody thinks being true best friends means doing non-sense things in life together or having drinks together or being partners in doing the wrong things in life.   But, a true best friend is not someone who joins you or has your back when you do something wrong. Instead, a true friend will be the first person to scold you or even beat you when you do something wrong. Because they never want you to go in the wrong direction. They want you to follow the path of what’s best for you.   A true friend will never let you do wrong things that may cause any damage to you or put you in harm’s way. They want you to be the happiest and healthiest version of you.   At the same time, they will encourage you to fol

A friend of mine bought an expensive SUV last year. At the time, I had asked him whether it was really necessary for him to spend so much on a car that he wouldn’t use that often. For which he said that everybody would be so impressed by his expensive SUV. For a year or so, all his posts on social media were filled up the pictures of the car at different places.   A year later now, when   I asked him about his car, he said that the maintenance and running costs are very expensive and that he is regretting his decision of buying an SUV. It has become a liability in his life. He further said that he should have opted for a smaller car that would have been more suitable to his city lifestyle.   Similarly, another friend of mine bought a flat couple of years ago at an expensive location in Bangalore. Although not big enough for comfort, it was very expensive because of its locality. I had told him that he should buy a bigger home which was just a bit further from the newly bought f

The other day while I was randomly browsing the internet, I came across an interesting article on stress in life and I wanted to share it with you. So, take a glass and fill it up with water. Hold the glass for a minute or so. It’s not so heavy, is it? But, if you hold it for an hour, you will start developing pain in your hand. If you hold for 6 hours, your hand will be numb and if you hold it even longer, you will feel that your hand is paralyzed.   Here, the weight of the glass is irrelevant. What matters is how long you are holding it. The longer you hold it, the heavier you will feel.   The stress and painful memories in our life are also like the glass of water. When you think about them for a short time, you will feel nothing. They will begin to hurt if you think about them longer. And if you think about them all the time, you won’t be able to do anything else. You will feel like you are paralyzed.   So it is important for us to remember to let go of our stress and p

It was an early morning, as I was just entering home returning from out of town,   I heard the voice ‘Hey Manoj! How are you?’   When I turned around, I saw a senior colleague of mine who had just retired a couple of months ago.   We started talking and I asked him how is his life after retirement? He said it is relaxing and peaceful. Those were his words. He said he is looking forward to enjoying his retired life and received his first pension just a few days before. We chatted for a while and I wished him a happy retired life, then he left.   In my tenure of two years working with him, what I saw was that he used to spend most of his time at work. He would always show up an hour or so before office hours started and most of the time would be the last person to leave. He was a mentor for many newcomers including me. He was a very senior person who retired with 41 years of service.   Back in the 1970s, he was appointed under my grandfather who was a Staff Inspector in Railw

Today I completed my 8 years of service in the Indian Railways. Appointed at the age of 21 years on the 13 th of June 2012, the journey has been no less than wonderful and exciting. Of course, things were quite difficult at times, but they taught me to be a better version of myself.     Not many of my relatives and friends know that I qualified in the NTPC exam for the job. Many of them think that it was just bestowed upon me.   Presently, being a Chief Vigilance Inspector at such a young age makes me feel proud. Probably, one of the youngest ever in Indian Railways. It’s not the end though, got a long way to go from here and I am looking forward for it as well.   Looking back at my college days, what really surprises me is that I never wanted to join the Government services. As a matter of fact, I resisted my job offer at Railways for quite some time. Also, upon completion of my graduation, I had a job offer from Infosys which also had promised me to fulfill my desire for

It was an early summer hot noon and I was sitting after a hefty meal when I heard one of my friends shouting. His friend was making an apology for a small mistake that he had committed. He was trying to tell him about how it was not intentional and was just a mistake. But, my friend was going on and on shouting about his mistake and saying he should not have made one. Normally, I don’t interfere when two people are arguing but, this one was going on for quite some time. Seeing the pathetic condition of the other, I jumped in and tried to settle them down. It took quite a while before they settled down. Later in the evening when I was sipping a cup of tea, I remembered an incident wherein a friend of mine had made a serious mistake that had badly affected me. Although it was a big deal, he had me convinced that it was not intentional and I had forgiven him. It was none other than the same person who was not ready to forgive his friend. This made me think, Isn’t it in our n

It was in early November when my friend Vipin invited me to attend his wedding at Azamgarh which was on 16 th Feb. 2020. Since I did not want to miss his wedding, I had decided well in advance to attend it. My initial plans were for a couple of days and to fly in and out from Varanasi. But, it was nearly a year since I had been on a long tour. My last one was the amazing tour of Nepal in December 2018. Time had come for me to revitalize my mental well being, which I always get from traveling. So, I decided to avail a few more days of leave and visit the less explored North East of India. Two of my friends who were also invited decided to tag along. We obtained the Inner Line Permit (ILP) through online from the Arunachal State Govt. which was very hassle-free. We attended my friend’s wedding and spent a couple of days exploring Varanasi. Later, we arrived at Guwahati at 06.30 pm on 18 th Feb. Although, it was still evening the early sunset times of the North Eastern states