The Art Of Happiness

The World is just about to end. Armageddon is near. The reason is not due to a stupid directionless meteorite. Nor is due to climate change - not this early. Its just plain and simple. Not rocket science. Happiness is dying. Almost extinct. Asphyxiating to survive.

The World needs more happiness. Humans are supposed to have evolved to stay happy. And we screwed it up royally. And all that effort (alien-hours) gone in mutating to an organism of complexity O(n raised to infinity) , yet inherently simple is wasted. No wonder, the aliens show utter disdain for us - they never show up. Why would they, if their purpose to see humanity grow up as a happy fat unit continues to fail?

I am a happy lad. I gave up all the sadness, moroseness, sullenness and disappointments long time back. There was so much of it that it required a few dustbins. Am no Dalai Lama nor am I Sri Sri Ravi Shankar nor am I Deepak Chopra. They are uber cool. I am a simple lad, who believes in happiness being the nirvana of our lives. No need to search for it or to pursue it. Its within us. All that needs to be done is to read the lines below.

So get ready to hear a few fundas of mine - on how to stay happy. I'll be happy if it succeeds for you. Even if it doesn't. Even if you sue me. My 5 paisa below - considering the inflation, it will be 2 paisa tomorrow.

1. Make someone's day: Not at all cryptic. Aim to help out someone during your 24 hours. After adding the lazy sleep - 16 hours. It can be anyone. Family, friends, boss, watchman, driver, beggar. Anyone! A smile, a word of praise or kind soothing words is all what is required.
2. Never give up hope: When the aliens designed our world, they programmed it such that there was an "if" check for every eventuality. The perfect software! No maintenance or support needed. Which means that there is a very good chance that our lives can hit the most beautiful, happening, hep line of code we never expected to reach. Think about it! By just staying positively optimistic and working for it, those lines of code are much approachable.
3. Crashland with a smile: The examination of our lives also includes moments where we go down and down churning in the whirpool of sadness. There's always gravity you see. It has to drag apples down. Accept it and walk on. As a compromise, stay sad for a while. But don't hypenate your life with it. Sleep over it and get your smile back.
4. Dream and pursue: Poor animals can't dream. They begged for it. Somehow stood on two limbs for it. The birds crooned for it. It was a special gift to us humans. A long term vision that can help define what we are and what we want to be. And yet, we give it all up. Carry a not-so-secret desire and keep it flaming in your hearts till you get it. A dream or a vision gives us a simplistic map to pursue the route to eternity. Eternity is not what matters though, the process does and pursuing it will make us happy.
5. Keep the faith: Trust humanity to do the trick. A cruel old haggard can be bought to tears by making him hear to Mozart. Why is that? Our hearts are still red - with love - even if we try to make it black. Even if we make everyone our enemies. Spread happiness to your near, dear and enemies. And stick to it. That's our faith!
6. Love your kin and kind: Make a few friends - for life. Care for your friends and family so much so that they get exhausted with you being around. Trust me, you can expect the best birthday celebrations ever.
7. Give back what you got: Philantrophy is pure unadulterated happiness. The dough that you earned is never truly yours if you know someone who slept hungry tonight and you didn't do anything about it.

And below are some trivial ones, which can still make you happy. All rights reserved.

1. Become a Beatle fan: Brim your Walkman with all the possible Beatle songs. Create magic within yourself.
2. No swearing: Some naughty perverted linguists are to be blamed for this. Stay away.
3. Travel the world: Don't eke out your living for buying household goodies. There's so much diversity and babes...oops sorry...cultures in the world to see.
4. Pursue a hobby: Is that too tough? It was always a hobby, so why stop it!
5. Never say 'No Time': The most lamest excuse. We work for 10 hours. Add 2 hours of gossip. 3 hours of socialising, hobbies and commuting. We still are left with 9!

Now that you are done reading, please pursue the same. For any other issues, am always available at this blog. Stay happy!

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1. The Hyderabad blasts really demonstrate how soon we are reaching the End.

2. George Orwell's 1984 is the best political literature ever written.

3. This post is the 100th one. Raises my bat to celebrate the century!

4. Life is about to change dramatically in all departments.

5. Thanks for reading this post. I enjoyed boring you.

The Resignation: Life 2.0 to 3.0

It was 5.30 am, Saturday. Two cute air-hostesses greeted me as I made my way to 11-A. Thankfully, a window seat. I never preferred any other. In just a few ticks, the flight would depart from the Mumbai airport all the way to Bangalore.

I settled myself cozily and amicably with 1984. But I could not focus - my mind could not grasp the sudden change that had just enveloped my life. The last week contained tumultuous yet exciting moments that I could foresee a gradual drift from Life 2.0 to Life 3.0.

I resigned from my current job last Wednesday, the 1st of August. A job which was just so cushy, hardly 15 minutes away from my nest and which I could enter even at lunchtime and leave anytime, which was challenging in a lot of ways and where I had established an amazing rapport with so many people, where I made a few friends for life and where if need be, I could opt for a better work profile, head abroad for a while, mint money and spend the next days of my life in this highly branded IT company, whose stocks are the most sought after, even by the most risk averse investor.

And I resigned!

The sun loosely peeked out of the clouds. It was still hazily dark and the cat and mouse game between the sun and clouds created an enticing treat for the eyes. A rainbow joined in the fun. I did not see any silver lining. Maybe someone else saw it.

Life 1.0 was the transcendental phase of my life. The phase when I did my MS in CS abroad. A phase when I learnt the true meaning of my life. The purpose of my life. A phase when I decided what I wanted to do in life. A phase which has defined me in terms of my behavior and attitude. This was the time, when I fought the most against all odds - to survive. A single instance of "I like the way you work. Good!" from an Italian, who had cursed and hurt everyone other in his scarred 50 year old life, would probably be the most important italicised words in my life. Standing in a roughly ironed shirt and grey trousers, I remember being embarassed hearing all the praise showered on me at the end of my successful thesis presentation. To sum it all up - this was the phase when I discovered happiness. My Gross Domestic Product - GDP. Never will it be pursued. The true Art of Living.

Thou shalt forever be happy.

I glanced below to snatch a liberating view through a few fluffy clouds. A silent lake stood still. Stalks of rice fields trying to feel the touch of dew drops. The crimson sky all the while, trying to pervade its influence through light.

Life 2.0 was the learning phase. A time to get a hold of myself and start planting the first seeds. It did involve a lot of cumbersome monotonous tasks, but I tried to make it as intuitively interesting as possible. The introvert to extrovert process had already begun, but it was in this phase that I could reach halfway through - which I feel is good enough for me. The environment around gave the right macro model of our world and made me realise of what exists and what all can be done. A moment to remember would be standing on the Goecha La Pass at 5200m and gazing at the Kanchenjunga right above my physical soul. Also, the creation of this blog to whom am so indebted to; just the perfect personal diary. Basically, the phase was about giving myself the chance to learn and implement Life 1.0's philosophy. And master it to take it to the next level.

The jet cradled itself on the runaway and parked at a predetermined spot. As I got out of the plane, a 20C breeze sneaked past me. Nice.

Life 3.0 just began last week. Just when I was planning on implementing my own idea through some venture, I learnt about this start-up company. And decided on a short weekend trip to Bangalore to work things out. Funded by an American entrepreneur/investor, the ideas are revolutionary and exciting. I haven't been able to sleep the moment my first discussion with him had begun. And am fortunate that I made it along with a good offer. Luck's surely playing games with me! Different city. Different world. Reunion with old friends. Most importantly, the roots have struck firm and the sapling's just eeked out of the soil.

I think I am crazy. No...weird. No...Both.

Over the weekend, the sessions with my boss turned out to be awe-inspiring. Or maybe mind-numbing. Ideas were brainstormed over coffee. And there is a huge challenge out there waiting for me. With long horns. Life will be interesting soon. From the 6th of September, when I join.

I entered the claustrophobic flight on 9pm, Sunday. The same air-hostesses greeted me (remember the cute ones?). Seat 15F. Window. Snuggled happily and moved to the bookmarked page of 1984. Tuned on Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World after a while.

Sometime later that evening, I peered through the window. It was dark. But I managed to see some stars. A few shooting stars. Someday. Someway.

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I wrote this to open up my life to this blog, since all the while it had been largely hidden. Being a diary, I also wanted to note the moment when my life took such a huge turn.

Jumping Dancing Jack

I did the most inexplicable, the most unimaginable, the most ridiculous thing that I had ever done in my life: DANCE in front of a live audience!

I am like a walking-talking robot who still hasn't been programmed to jig smoothly. Or think of a Physical Training instructor, who teaches kids to exercise - all his life, he's been too stiff to be nimble with his arms and legs. One fine day, you ask one such robot or a PT instructor to "rock n roll". Yeah. I heard a lotta gasps.

It was a minor guest appearance role as a dancer. But I had to sweat and slog myself out to do that 1 min role. No doubt, the means is always better than the end: it was helluva fun to learn to dance. Add to that, making new friends: my fellow dancers being unknown entities a week back. As the team gelled over a resort outing at Arnala, the unknowns transmogrified into relative knowns (A water rugby game played a major role in this mutation). The dance idea popped up from somewhere. With 24 hours left for the show, I was dragged in - to my horror. But I am so glad they did that.

Cleared the Dancing 101 course.

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Read up Leo Tolstoy's short story "After The Dance". A dark and a sweet one. I liked his writing style - maybe Anna Karenina someday!

The Life Of Me

Je suis back after quite a while. A conked keyboard and an exasperating customer side issue made matters worse. Better late than never.

A few moments that were missed by this diary:

1. Embarked on this wonderful roadtrip along the Mumbai Goa coastline, some three weeks back. My beloved little car throttled upto an amazing 1000 kms over 3 days (with me driving most of the time) and was treated with a mindboggling landscape, sun-kissed, white-sand, private beaches with glistening blue waters. Feels a lot better, when you run away from the madding crowds and just randomly park your car on a secluded beach to swim off. I would term it a "cubicle" trip and not an out-of cubicle one. Why? Coz the trip counted 3 other cubicle-mates. Yeah. we have the coolest cubicle (of 4) in the entire office. There is never a moment of sadness...smiles abound...and we rock all the time. The trip snaps here.

2. I entered the Francois Truffaut zone after a tryst with his 1953 classic "The 400 Blows". And it was awe-inspiring. Had been watching a lot of Kubrick, Kurosawa stuff along with some eclectic movies. I have begun to develop this as a hobby - to devour the best in world cinema. Subtitles make it really easier. And it has really been a pleasurable experience. Makes the current generation of even decent movies seem masala crap. Takes you higher in the intellectual fiefdom scale. For starters, the South American based "The Motorcycle Diaries" and the French "13 Tzameti" gives you the perfect introduction of how this kind of cinema can crank you to think. For a list of this wonderful genre, check this out. Of course, I still love a few Hollywood ones - Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream", "PI" and "The Fountain".

3. On the movie note, I watch Rajnikant's "Sivaji - The Boss" first day first show - something which am proud of - something which gives me the power to boast of - something which very few people in this world have done. I had never had a better time in my whole quarter-life, while watching a masal movie. I do not understand Tamil, despite being a half Tam. But Rajni's histrionics makes up for it. And the hysterical crowds made it super memorable with all the hoots, whistles and their total devotion to Thalaivar - Super Star Rajni. A toast to him to give one and all, a sense momentary happiness. Be it rich or poor.

4. On the work front, its been generally too strenous to talk about. Leaving for home at 1 am seems to have become the norm. I try too hard to push myself to the limit, in the process giving up on other things that need attention. I have known myself to be a workaholic. But the lengths that am going is hurting myself and I believe I need to calm down. Hoping to change myself on this front. As an aside, am really fortunate to be working with the current team. There is an amazing team-spirit which makes it so easier to work and have fun. Again, a toast to each of them.

5. The rains are just around the corner. And it takes my happiness rating to a higher level. I do hate the puddles and the perfectly circled potholes. But why blame the monsoon? The tiny droplets are too poetic and luscious to be cursed. Uhh...lemme see, if I can scribble a few bad lines on my favorite season.

Gloom sets in his eyes, tears abound within
Despair runs through, the heart
is screaming
He looks upto the sky, pleading for change
The sun smirks,
there is no respite my friend

Far in the horizon, they hear
the tragic tale
They may be dark, but make great
friends
All wishes are granted, as they cover the sun's fury
And pour
out in all their glory, erasing all the misery

6. I have been thinking to take some social cause after my Greenpeace membership expired. This time, I wish to be closely associated with educating socially deprived kids. An update on that soon.

7. I can't stop listening to "Waiting On The World To Change" by John Mayer. Great song to begin one's day. Of course, no one creates magic like The Beatles.

8. Super excited about the upcoming Everest Base Camp trek in October-November. Have done the basic research and have fallen in love (finally) - with Everest. The trek would take up an enchanting two weeks and I have my best pals - Anup and Ram - for company.

Guess, I need to update more frequently to avoid such long boring posts:)