Rising from the Ashes...

                                               

                                             

                                         Ring a ring of roses

                                         A pocket full of posies 

                                        Ashes, ashes

                                       We all fall down!

Many are familiar with this nursery rhyme....but take a look at the last two lines...we turn to ashes and fall to the ground.

Many times in life,we have faced near death situations literally and symbolically. It is learning to 'rise' from this 'fall' that alone determines our road and our life ahead.

Recently we have seen The Man of the Tournament from last year's World Cup, Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh , who had to go to the United States for treatment of  a rare germ cell cancer between his lungs in January.
Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh who bravely fought cancer and successfully returned back to bat on the field. In the process, his near death experience has made him look at life very differently and value it even more.

Nick Vujicic - The astonishing story of the man born without arms or legs... who plays golf, surfs, and swims .was born with no arms or legs - but he doesn't let the details stop him.

The brave 29 year old whose disability came without any medical explanation - a rare occurrence called Phocomelia admits that he and his parents spent many years asking why this cruel trick would happen to them. But with the help of his faith, family and friends, Nick managed to pull through to become an international symbol of triumph over adversity.

Having lived in Montreal, Canada for 5 years on the street named after Terry fox, it is important and sentimental for me to mention here about this great humanitarian.

Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox was a Canadian athlete, and cancer research activist. In 1980 with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 mi), and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$500 million has been raised in his name.

So no matter what experience you might face professionally or personally, you know the heroes that you can look to look up to. They will inspire you and give you immense strength to face your obstacles or difficult circumstances. Remember that your strength and will to rise from the apparent fall is in itself a winning response!

                  

                    

                              

A Ride called Life!!!

                                               
                                                
 Finding Stability in Unpredictability.
                                                                   

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing- Helen Keller

Life is a heady mix of seasons, a rainbow of colours, a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.It is the ultimate adventure and an opportunity to experience a gamut of emotions.You must make the most of the cards that are dealt to you.

We all look for stability in life but sometimes there is none. So what do you.do? You change ur mindset and find stability in the unpredictability of it all! MAKE that your ANCHOR!!! Look upon LIFE like a buffet...there's SO MUCH being offered! Don't fill yourself up with salads, soups or appetisers, WAIT...there's more. There are more cuisines of adventure being offered to you..WAIT ...till you get to the dessert...you'll enjoy the sweetness of having made the right choice...the best choice for you!

This article is dedicated to the young minds out there,on the threshold of life, waiting to discover themselves and find their calling! It is also for those at the cross roads of life, waiting to re-define themselves and reach their ultimate calling!

Be OPEN to the ADVENTURE. Don't worry about the rough ride...In the end you'll have made a smooth landing.

As I grow to understand life less and less,
I learn to love it more and more- Jules Renard

So go on, enjoy the roller coater ride...the RIDE called LIFE is the RIDE OF YOUR LIFE! The ride of ur life is LIFE itself! And the only way to prepare for it is to LIVE IT.

A New Day Has Come.....Reinvent Yourself !

Consider each dawning of a new day as a beginning of a new life for you. Start afresh , make peace with the past and move on to a new you, a happier you, a greater you.

We all need to reinvent ourselves from time to time. Even a car needs maintenance, upkeep and fine tuning every now and then! We remodel ourselves to what works according to the new situation or simply we outgrow our tastes , ideas, habits etc. That is part of the process of 'evolving'.
The only constant in life is change.If we can embrace it , adapt to it, we detoxify ourselves of notions that don't work for us.
The most talented and successful of people have done it. In fact its often said, attaining success is not half as difficult as sustaining it! Music diva Madonna , Celine Dion, Actors like Meryl Streep are just some of the names in showbiz. Sometimes, the change appears to be on a physical level, like updating ones appearance or mannerisms or style of talking etc but it is always the mind that has allowed the change to take place.One has to develop a mind set which 'allows' change to happen!!! In the pprofessional sphere of our lives, the importance is obvious, but are we also aware of its importance in our personal lives? Our enthusiasm for the same task wanes after a bit...we need to rejuvenate ourselves, or do the task differently or simply we have outgrown our taste for it and need to rediscover ourselves. Our change in tastes, likes /dislikes in all spheres are actually a sign for us to delve more into our psyche and pay heed to it. Even in our relations with friends and family...its a constant fine tuning that needs to be done....and don't forget that the other person may be going through the same process of rediscovery themselves!!! So give time, be patient and give the space required.

So don't let this daunt you in any way...rediscover yourself and reinvent yourself... be aware of it and act upon it in time. Don't wait for the miracle to happen to you....Be the miracle for yourself!

Time for Reflection

Our daily life is full of running around... working under constant pressure,showing up for various social obligations, running errands, meeting deadlines, keeping appointments.. mostly we try to pack in 48hours of life in 24 hours. Some might even defend this approach and say 'Hey,we are living life to the fullest...we are living today as though there is no tomorrow. Whats wrong with that?'

Well,  if it were really true in terms of quality, then I'd say, yes by all means do so! But the reality is far from it. Big cities have more opportunities to offer but also more struggle, greed, competition and yes, manipulation. Here it is the survival of the fittest. Fit enough to do the above and endure it!
But these are also the first to be fit to fall sick and  have health issues like insomnia, blood pressure, heart problems etc, many sign up for spiritual  healing courses and spa therapy to counter effect stress, they have family issues  since they have no time to spare,and it also spills over to  their social life as well. And so the end result is they are both unhappy and discontent. So what do we do? How do we solve this? And how much is considered 'Enough'?

Nothing of what I say has not been mentioned before....but what do we do about it? Nothing.So I'll say it again...Take the time to reflect....stop and take time to smell the roses along the way...Your health and well being is really in your hands. You don't need anti-ageing creams.... let the lines on the face represent a life that has been well-lived and not the aftermath or effects of stress (mostly self-imposed).

If you take time to reflect, your mind will be able to better handle all spheres of life and give each its due. I would thus like to end by quoting which would exemplify in the most beautiful way about refecting on ur life from time to time, from Shri Harivanshrai Bachchan's poem-

Jeevan Ki Appadhapi Mein, Kab Waqt Mila,
Kuch Der Kahin Par Baith Kabhi Yeh Soch Sakoon
Jo Kiya, Kaha, Mana, Usmein Kya Bura Bhala.

जीवन की आपाधापी में कब वक़्त मिला
कुछ देर कहीं पर बैठ कभी यह सोच सकूँ
जो किया, कहा, माना उसमें क्या बुरा भला।

Pearls of Wisdom: U Live and Learn

Don't be afraid to make mistakes as it is often said to err is only human :-) Its learning from them that makes you wiser.

In our childhood,spending summer holidays in Mahabaleshwar in our ancestral home was the norm and a fun thing to do. Us kids would often go by the lake and relish the corn bhuttas and strawberry milkshakes and do all the other fun stuff like horse riding and playing video games .
It was on one such day that I went accompanied by a far off relative to the lake. After enjoying myself thoroughly with all the eatery stuff, with some money that I  had saved, I tried my luck on a dart game and a ring toss game. I tried and failed miserably...On seeing my disappointment, my uncle nudged me in the direction of yet another game that would hopefully bring a smile to my face. I was disappointed on not winning but had been enjoying myself nonetheless so I really did not mind heading back home but when my Uncle insisted, then after much effort, I decided to try my luck on this last game. The game was about trying to push a tennis ball from a distance into the narrow rows on the board table to reach a particular even or odd number to win something that was represented by that number. As I commenced, I was losing, and just when I was about to give up, I started winning...I won all the products ( shampoo, glucose biscuits, soaps etc)...
I was very happy and decided to quit but my Uncle explained that this was a stroke of good luck and that I must enjoy that to the fullest by playing on ....As time went by after a few rounds, I started losing till I lost all that I had won... With all the good intentions and strong spirit of my Uncle, this incident  was still an eyeopener for me.
And thus I had learnt my first lesson at the age of six.....Its not winning the game that's important but enjoying the process that even more important. Also to be content with what is while still striving hard.

All is Well in Your World :)

What is Inspiration?

To be ‘In –Spirit’ and feel a ‘Oneness’ resonate within you.

Victory is that much sweeter after failure.

There are 3 kinds of people-those who swim with the tide, the ones who swim against it and then those who drown. You Choose.

There’s nothing MORE POWERFUL than an idea whose time has come :-)

First live life FEARLESSLY, everyone and everything else will fall in line :-)

Don’t wish people or incidents away. They were there for a reason. They played their role in your play of life. They contributed to the EVOLVED YOU.

The irony of Life- You might be the cause of someone’s misery and also be the reason of another person’s happinessJ

Seasons of life- Autumn-Shedding of the unwanted, Winter-Baring of the soul and surrendering,

Spring-Birth of a NEW you, Summer-Blossoming of U!

Clouds of Doubts will clear and will give birth to a limitless sky of new hopes and dreams with sunshine on the horizon…Keep the Faith :-)

Feel for urself the 'Power' of ur willpower today!

Excerpts from My Journey of Life:

Excerpts from My Journey of Life:

Overcoming Obstacles:

What good is life if you haven’t had a chance to learn something from it? How utterly boring if you always had your way… there would be no further dreams or goals to accomplish… no desires to fulfill, no imagination or creativity , no inspiration or motivation to do better.

On the other hand, how adventurous to have life keep throwing surprises at you every step of the way! The fact that no one person’s life is exactly similar to another’s makes each journey that much more special and unique.  It is often said that ‘Victory is that much sweeter after Failure’ :-)

Its only when u see obstacles or ‘apparent setbacks’ that you are given an opportunity to gather your strength from hidden sources within you and call forth into creating a new and more durable you.

Personally speaking, every time I was told that I was not ‘capable’ of doing a thing, I held on to doing that exact thing, wanting to prove to myself more than anyone else that I really could do it.

From having no command over the English language as a little child and scoring mostly C’s academically (I was told to change schools as I would not be able to ‘cope’) to getting mostly A+’s by the time I was eight.

By being called ‘slow one’ in  kindergarten for a  school duck race, even though I had a head start, only because I wanted to perfect the ‘quack’ to coming first the following year in a shoe lace tying race.

By being the weakest in sports and thus a benchmark for the minimum passing grade in sports to learning and excelling in swimming, badminton, roller skating and training for muscle and strength endurance for hours.

From having no inclination or talent in painting (in spite of having talented artists as siblings) to painting an impression from Monet.

From being an average student in secondary school to getting a ‘first class’ percentile in high school and university years.

From being one of the heavier participants during pre-contest days of a national beauty pageant to being one of the lightest on D-day!

From not knowing how to ride a bicycle (with a history of failed attempts) from sunrise, riding and falling continuously for those hours with no food or water till sunset where a beaming me convinced myself and others of the Power of our ‘Willpower’.

This list can go on and on as we attempt to use to the maximum, our ‘Never say die’ attitude in overcoming any obstacles to our path.

There are three kinds of people, one who swims with the tide, one who swims against it and one who chooses to  not move their limbs and consequently they drown.  So choose your response wisely… :-)