Be Happy Singh!

We live in a world today which waits for Valentine’s Day to express our love for our beloved and Mother’s Day to extend our affection towards our mother. We are generally always on a lookout for ‘false’ reasons which denote happiness. We keep running after the worldly pleasures considering they are the sole means to the eternal happiness. But the truth remains that even in a 100-room villa, one needs just a single bedroom to sleep. The true happiness comes from enjoying each and every moment you live on this planet. One must do what he likes, or start liking whatever he is doing.

Here are my simple fundas to be Happy Singh:

Stop Thinking what Others Think of You

Thinking what others might think of any of our actions is simply getting into somebody else’s shoes. If we even think about what others think of us, then what job do we leave for others to do. As a hindi quote goes, “Duniya ka sabse bada rog, kya kahenge log!”, get free from this highly infectious disease about what people think about you.

One should do things not to please others but to please the inner self. It’s certainly fine to be stupid, childish at moments.

Smile

Laughing Budha brings Luck, Smiling Sardar spreads Smiles!

When feeling stressed out or when your mood is low, just SMILE, yes smile, because the brain often gets fooled and ends in making one HAPPY. Smile is a simple curve that gets many thing straight. You might not notice how the life is happy and cheerful, when you are smiling, simply because you spread an aroma of positivity and optimism to your surrounding environment, and that is what majority of the world needs these days being stressed out between striking a good balance between personal and professional lives.

Practice a Hobby

Don't Move, else I will Shoot You!

An empty mind is said to be devil’s workshop. A vacant mind houses all the evil actions. Its good to keep the mind occupied in something one can feel happy about. So, here’s how your hobby can be a tenant in your empty mind. Do something that makes one feel good. It may not always earn you more money, but will render a sense of fulfillment and achievement. For me, it’s either photography or writing my blog. Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog gives me one more. :)

Expect Less

Being a finance professional, I tend to convert the routines into mathematical expressions and here is the simplest formula to be happy in life. Happiness from any event is just the difference between the actual outcome of the event and our expectations before the outcome happened.

Happiness = Actual Outcome – Expectations

So, in order to increase our happiness quotient, either the outcome should be higher than usual or what we expect from the event should be the minimum. While generally the outcome is dependent on several other factors than just our actions, what we can do is keeping our expectations low. If we can minimize our expectations, even the minutest thing occurring in our life will make us happy. Further, by practicing to keep our expectations low, we tend to relieve pressure from others as well, which makes them happy and that will make you happier as well.

However, there are always some exceptions to the general rule. Once you have checked out Ivy Estate by Kolte Developers Private Limited in the video for which I am also sharing the link below, it is tough to keep the expectations low but the video also assures me of a great outcome, certainly one more reason to be happy. :)

#CelebrateLifeAtIvy by owning a dream home at Ivy estate, an 85 acre estate with 34 acres of greenery and open spaces. Join the 1600 happy families already living here. Check out this walkthrough video and decide for yourself.

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A Sneak Peak into Mythology - ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Book Review of ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Author : Shubha Vilas

Publisher – Jaico Publishing House

Genre – History/ Mythology

One sentence for the book

The author tries to narrate and portray the Ayodhaya scene and beyond revolving around Rama’s exile, and moves on to connect the centuries-old tales to the modern day relationships.

About the Author

Shubha Vilas, a spiritual seeker and a motivational speaker, holds a degree in engineering and law with specialization in Patent Law. His leadership seminars are popular with top-level management in corporate houses. He also helps individuals deal with modern-life situations by applying the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana and other dharmic traditions.

Author’s Writing Style

I have not read Shubha Vilas earlier, but this book’s narratives were not what I will really forward for in my next book.

The Title and Book Cover

The book cover is eye catching and shows Rama sleeping with a troubled yet so soothing expression. The chariot with Dashratha is shown in the background, but with a donkey in place of horse driving the chariot. Based on the historical facts, one can indeed guess what it can expect out of the story.

The title indeed is interesting and already being aware of the Ramayana story, it surely helped me connect with the book even before I read it.

About the Book

This one is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series - Ramayana - The Game of Life. Even though I have not read Part 1, yet I was able to catch on with the sequel and there were hardly any missing gaps. The story captured in this part is the time after Rama’s marriage with Sita, Dashratha’s tough decision to send Rama on exile and the time thereafter. However, a particular thing which I really liked about the book was the way Keikeyi and Bharatha have been portrayed. Keikeyi is often considered to be the bad queen but Rama has been portrayed to be the loved one for her as well apart from for the whole kingdom.

The way practicalities of life have been threaded along with the story of Ramayana is what stands out to be the best part of the book. There is lot to learn in the book, provided you are ready to willing to.

Thumbs Up

While the history is very much known to us, what I really liked about the book was the words of wisdom in the footnotes. It really changes the way you approach the book being read. The reader not just ‘reads’, but learns through the book.

Thumbs Down

Book has portrayed the mythological characters at some place in a drastically different manner in how we perceive the main characters of Rama and Laxman. Rama is portrayed to be content and enjoying the exile while Laxman gets portrayed as someone with no regard from Rama and Sita. One who does not know Ramayana history out of this book will have a completely different perception of the Ramayana.

Rating

3.5/5

History, being a subject of the past, does not leave much scope for creativity for the author, still linking it up with modern day lives was what kept me hooked up but at times, it got me into the ‘bored’ mode.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

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An Experiment can Change your Life!

Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog post gives me one more. :)

Sometimes in life, we feel like experimenting with ourselves. I too got this thought once around 10 years back. And that’s when I ventured to fill an application for a National Level science show 'Hum Honge Kamyaab'. Though this might not sound an experiment at first instance, it definitely was, for me who was pursuing Commerce stream. I got called up by my principal who asked me to attempt to clear the prelims for the national level science competition. It had already been a year for me in Commerce and I was surprised why I was being asked to go for the competition when the bright lot in Science stream was also available. However, notwithstanding my initial reluctance, I along with one of my friends in Medical stream, filled up the form. However, once the form was sent, we both really forgot about it.

However, after exactly a month of sending, in the first of March, 2005, I received a call from the organisers that me and my friends’ name had been shortlisted among 200 students across the country and we were now to appear in a written test which will enable the organisers to select the 36 students who will finally compete in the national completion. We both accompanied by his grandfather went to New Delhi to appear for the test. It was an exciting journey for me, as the sense of thrill was biting me. What if I get selected? How will I even make my participation felt, considering I was from non-science stream. Still, there was something within which kept me pushing.

A week after the test, it was a moment of happiness when I received a call from New Delhi informing me that I was one among 36 students selected across the country. But yes, I was told to bring a team mate with me to participate in the competition which will happen in a week long camp in New Delhi. I approached my friend from Medical stream which expressed his inability to come with me, since he would have to sacrifice his classes for that duration. I was in a fix now since I had to go with a team mate and I was required to intimate the organisers at the earliest. And then one of my seniors came across my mind. I conveyed him the idea and yippee, he agreed to accompany me. The best thing about this was that he also had his Commerce stream and we were now a team of Commerce students in a national level Science competition.

It was a week long camp and our team was there in New Delhi with my elder brother as our team’s guardian. As we reached the camp, we also got to know that the competition will be shot with one celebrity anchor and would later be telecast on DD National Channel. So, we were going to get on the ‘idiot box’. We were handed out the scheme of events and honestly speaking, those eight days were amongst the best days I had. We were given the task of creating a keyless door and when the judgement was going on for our model, one of the judges also made a remark that we were close enough to the victory. However, after knowing that our team was a purely Commerce team, he was surprised that how could we manage to come so far. And yes, that simple expression has made me believe that anything is possible with sheer determination and belief in self.

Gaurav Gera, our anchor for the Show

The day of our Shoot

This one experiment surely did change my attitude towards life, and I started believing more in myself. The interaction that happened in the camp with other students, the organizing team and the team behind the production of the show was really something that has brought a drastic change in me. My school friends who left the school in 10^th also tell me the same that the ‘Simardeep’ we know was a quiet studious guy and the one who we see now is a different one altogether.

The day I am writing this post marks exactly 10 years of the day I got back from the camp. But with pride I say, I am still in touch with most of the friends I made there.

This experiment filled me with optimism and taught me to always look up. Housing.com’s latest ad campaign reminds me of the all those glorious days since it always wants me to look up and look optimistic.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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A Day when we Re-United!!

We realize the importance of the school life, generally only after we have passed out of that phase. It is the time when we generally do lots of stupid stuff and still have no regrets about it.

It has now been 8 years since we left that phase and entered the college life. We school friends were not that much in touch for almost 4-5 years and then thanks to Facebook and Facebook, we were back in touch. Finally, we thought to plan a day to School at a time when 20+ friends were back in Amritsar, while generally they were dispersed in different cities. So, after lots of WhatApp group chat, we got our plans right and finalized a day. We were so very excited about meeting the old friends and also meeting our guides/ teachers. And the day arrived but the weather God was not with us that day. It was raining like there was no tomorrow. Still, we decided to go ahead with our plan since the next time we would be together, it would be another year. One of my friends picked me up from home and it was lots of chit-chaat still being in car and enjoying the weather outside.

When we reached School, the friends gang was already waiting for us at the gates to enter together. As we were entering the lane, a nostalgic feeling started getting over me. We were all just talking about how much we wanted to get out of these lanes each day in school and now we were so excited to enter those lanes. The rain had got transformed into a drizzle now.

As we entered into the School, since it was still some time for the final bell of the school to ring, we thought it better to first meet our teachers and then hang out in the empty classrooms and remember those lovely days. It was a great experience when few teachers still recognized us, few could recognize with little hints and the rest of which who could not recognize were the ones who joined the school later than we left. We also noticed that the school had recognized our contributions and there were life-size photos of each batch since we had left. It felt great seeing that picture. We felt quite proud within ourselves when a couple of our teachers introduced us to the ongoing class as the ‘honhaar bache’ who are now settled into their lives.

But the real time for us began when we lived that life again after the school time had got over, as the classrooms were all for us now. We sat on the wooden benches, chatted about how our lives have changed, used the blackboards to write our heart out and lot many other things. And yes, not to forget the times we used to really desire all the days during school, the sports period, we relived that as well. We played basketball, volleyball amidst the drizzle and it was great fun. The day brought back so many loving memories for me and I really wish we do have another re-union at School. Leaving you with a couple of pictures of the day for you.

Sitting on Wooden Benches was Fun!

A Groupie with Teachers

Sprawling Sports Ground in a Lovely Rainy Weather

Yaar Anmulle - Re-United Friends

That day definitely made me more closer to the glorious days of my life, my school life. But not forgetting about the past time, we should always look up to our high ambitions and make our guides and teachers more proud of us.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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