Blissful Life

Year: 2011

  • Mantras, Positive Self Talks: Motivation at Your Tongue Tip

    We’ve all had it. Moments of slump, when the whole world seems to be crash landing on you. May be on the eve of an examination. May be while preparing for a very important meeting. Times when you feel let down.

    Everyone has those moments of desperation.
    And a lot of losers give up at these moments of weakness.

    But winners react differently.
    They close their eyes, or look straight into them in a mirror.

    And they talk directly to themselves:

    “I am a winner. I have a dream. I have a vision. And I do everything I can to be there. I am happy. And I am strong. I am invincible. I defeat all troubles that come my way. I finish first. I finish strong. I am a winner. I am a champion, to be precise. I rock. I am awesome.  I am the alpha and the omega. I am God!”

    They finish telling that (if they can wait till the end) and they are off to slay the trouble they had been facing. And then there won’t be anything on earth to stop them.

    Confidence is like a nuclear bomb. You set it off, and it gulps everything in sight.

    And the detonator is self talk. Tested. Proven.

  • A Small Guide to Critical Thinking

    Whatever you read, whatever you hear, whatever you think, ask yourself:

    Could the opposite be true?

    That’s all there is to critical thinking.

  • (Un)happy Women’s Day?

    What makes girls today wish they were born as boys?
    Why has every Women’s Day article I read today focused on the injustice towards women and not on their achievements?
    Why do they even have to build a site explaining women’s rights in Islam?
    Why did I think of founding the sisbro organization (a volunteer organization that helps unaccompanied sisters arriving at railway stations and bus stands to reach safety by sending them authorized brothers seeking nothing but sisterly affection in return for their care)? And why did I have to worry about it being a failure too?

    The answer – not soul stirring, not at all surprising, but the most ignored and the least sought out – is that we, as a people or a society, have not grown. How progressive can we expect an average member of a society described by the supreme court as having “low ethical levels and rampant commercialization” to be? We are immature. We are incomplete. We are illiterate. We still lack the mindset, the outlook, and even the vision of a constructive culture.

    And above all we are not ready to correct ourselves.
    Or to be more accurate, we are not brave enough.

    We are not brave enough to:

    1. think about different solutions
    2. question injustice
    3. publicly and outrightly reject commercialization (especially the exploitation of women’s sexuality, and men’s carnal desires)
    4. swim against the stream (the stream which’s been flowing only in one direction from the beginning of time)
    5. break taboos
    6. raise our voice
    7. stop ‘giving’ equal status to women
    8. let high school students of either gender sit together (I’m particularly adamant about this one. You believe they have their own different set of problems? I believe that’s been the problem behind all these problems. Girls and boys may have different bodies, but they do have the same minds. Their problems may be different in appearance, but they’re the one and the same. And there’s no compromise on this point)
    9. realize that giving birth is not the only work a woman can do efficiently (especially considering the growing population of India)
    10. ask ourself whether it’s easier to talk about sex and birth prevention or about rape and sexual abuse.
    11. start accepting what’s good in other cultures (especially the western culture. Ya. I know that’s gonna make earn me a tag of a pro-western idiot. But there’s no denying the fact that many of the problems that our gloated 10000 year old culture faces now, is not at all a menace in the west, because their culture by design eliminates the causes of these)
    12. stop editing and re-editing your comment under this post to conform to ‘moral standards’ and start changing the world
    13. go and get a life
      Most Indians have nothing to think about other than their boring work (which, we don’t realize is, not compulsory), and gossips. There are cooler things to do in life. (And when your mind is stretched by a new idea it never regains its original dimensions)

    Happy Women’s Day, then.

      PS: As I say that, I see another steamy song on the tv in which the fingers of the hero grazes over the bare skin of that sleeveless, and probably shameless new actress, and I (even I d:) can’t control the animal instincts hard coded into my brain.

    1. Mr Ravi Shankar, I’ll Contribute To Your Program, After You Do This

      This is with reference to the claims by the 8-10 middle aged women who wanted a contribution from me towards the ‘Aanandotsavam’ program to be held by Shri (another Shri?) Ravi Shankar at Kannur on February 15th, 2011.

      (Since the whole Art of Living foundation claims to enlighten people and make them grow internally, which is exactly what I try to do with this blog, you can of course consider this article just as one grown out of jealousy. Or you can THINK)

      I WILL contribute towards the program, provided you agree to comply with the following requests.

      1. Agree that any breathing exercise can improve concentration up to an extent. And when this happens human mind is drawn away from worries into the breathing pattern. And so, tasks which are done without those worries get done much more efficiently.
        And that whatever breathing you teach (with copyright) is not drastically different from this modus operandi.

      2. Agree that since you have got a copyright for Sudarshana Kriya (or whatever) only to prevent commercialization by others, you will allow organizations or people who are ready to teach this free of cost, to do so, without any copyright concerns coming in the way.
      3. Agree to make your income/expenditure balance sheets public and transparent and easy to access (and clear so that my friends in the commerce section will not find it difficult to calculate)
      4. Agree that the spiritual knowledge (that those women said brings mental calm) can be achieved not only through your course (paying heftily) but also from a local library and/or a local guru (because there are so many of them, and they can’t be all frauds; if that’s the case you’d be the only one who’s genuine) at whatever concession fee they offer.
      5. Agree that spirituality sells, like sex do.
      6. Agree that whatever is said in the following sites against you are wrong, baseless and not to be trusted (if possible, with proof):

      If you agree with all of these. And still live to see me, I will surely give you the contribution. But don’t expect more than Rs. 100. That’s all I have in my purse, because Google Adsense isn’t paying anything. (And the reason why I still continue blogging is not the hope that I can make a living online, but that there are people who read what I write and I’m obliged to them)