"A GENERATION THAT'S LOST IN THEIR PHONES"

 

 असली मज़ा घूमने का तो बचपन में आया करता था,
अब तो बस नाम के लिए ट्रेवल किया करते हैं।
नज़रें जो हमेशा ऊपर रहा करती थी,
वह अब फोन मैं झुकी रहती है।

 

लम्हे जो पहले सिर्फ नज़रों में कैद किए जाते थे,
अब उसके साथ सेल्फीयान भी कम पड़ती है।
पहले जो गाड़ियों में बातों के लिए अच्छी कंपनी ढूंढा करते थे,
वह अब चार्जिंग के लिए पॉइंट ढूंढते रहते हैं।

 

जो चीज़ें लोग घर पर आराम से कर सकते हैं,
ना जाने क्यों वो बाहर भी वही करते हैं?
अपने आस पास का मज़ा लोग पहले जैसे क्यों नहीं लेते हैं,
लोग, ना जाने क्यों फोन मैं इतना खोए रहते हैं?

अब समझ आता है की क्यों बुजुर्ग लोग फोन से इतने खफा रहते हैं,
सब कुछ देखा है उन्होंने,
पर साथ होते हुए भी ऐसी खामोशी नहीं देखी कभी।

खुद जब तक ना देखी थी, तब तक ये बात मैंने भी ना मानी थी,
इस तकनीकी प्रगति ने हमारे हाथों में सब कुछ रख तो दिया,
पर, हाथ थामने वालों से हमें दूर सा कर दिया है।

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Asli mazza ghumne ka toh bachpan mai aaya karta tha,
Aab toh bas naam ke liye travel kiya krte hai.
Nazzre joh hamesha upar rha karti thi
Aab woh phone main jhuki rehti hai.

Lamhe joh pehele sirf nazro mai kaid kiye jaate the,

Aab uske sath selfiyaan bhi kam padti hai.
Pehele jo traino mai baaton ke liye achchi company dhunda karte the
Wo aab charging ke liye point dhundte rehte hai.

Jo cheeze log ghar pe aaram se kar sakte hai,

Naa jane kyu wo bahar bhi wahi kiya karte hai?
Apne aas pass ka maza log pehele jaise kyu nahi lete hai,
Log, naa jaane kyu phone mai itna khoye rehte hai?

Aab samjh aata hai ki kyu bujurg log phone se itne khafa rehte hai,

Sab kuch dekha hai unhone,

Par sath hote hue bhi aisi khaamoshi nhi dekhi kabhi.

Khud jab tak na dekhi thi, tab tak yeh baat maine bhi naa maani thi.

Iss technological advancement ne humare hathon mai sab kuch rakh toh diya
Par, hath thamne walo se hume dooor saa kr diya hai.

Following Passion and Knowing What You Want

It’s said, “If you do what you love then you won’t have to work for a single day in your life”. But is it really so? Do we actually know what we love? If it’s that simple then why not everybody is doing it?

We are often asked to find our passion and follow it. The thing is that in some way or other we all are well aware about our various interests and somehow through it try to close in on our passion. But still even after identifying it we are not able to do much with it. Some of the varied interests look really good but they don’t seem to be financially sustainable or seem too late to undertake. So, we soon abandon our search for what should be the rightful work for us to settle for anything that would support us and would look respectable in the eyes of the society.

The thing that we fail to recognise here is that the word ‘Passion’ is just a label. It’s a word and like all words, it points to something beyond it, like a signpost pointing towards a certain destination. It doesn’t mean that the place is there itself. In the similar way the word ‘Passion’ points to something beyond it. You need to go great distance inside it to know what’s there in it that’s exactly meant for you. But we often forget this thing and believe that the label is in fact the destination, and start to look for the things around it. Due to it we tend to misinterpret our actual passion. 

What we don’t understand is that our momentary thoughts are feelings. They are emotions which change with time. No longer at two different point of time do they remain the same. So, we completely can't rely on them. And due to these changing feelings, we end up assigning wrong meaning and direction to our interests. Sometimes it happens because we got impressed by someone’s lifestyle or we saw a kind of that living in the fictional world, and tried to purse it not realising that what we got to see was just a few hours of glory and not the actual life itself. There’s a long tedious work that goes in the background, the one we call the ground work, before they get the chance to enjoy the limelight for a short interval. So try to look at that thing too. It’s one of its part. You can’t do without it. You might love to do that thing, but ask yourself, can you go through all that that get you to do what you love to do? Will it be worth the effort? Will you still enjoy it? Possibly, you might not.

Now the question arises how to know what you really want to be? The thing is that no matter how complicated life might be there are always 3 main things you really like and enjoy. They are your top 3 hobbies. Try to figure them out and close in on them. The reason behind selecting 3 is: One to make you money, one to keep you in shape and one to be creative. This way you will really get to your enjoy life while doing the things you had always wanted to do. So ask yourself ‘Can I make a career in it? If yes then, do I want to look at it from financial perspective or just enjoy it?’ Try to know more about your strengths and weaknesses and see whether they are aligning with your values and beliefs while keeping your desired line in your mind. After you have sorted all the questions and weighed pros and cons of each situation, go with the one which looks more promising to you. And remember that it’s not just enough to find the best path and then walk on it. It’s also important to ensure that the path will take you where you want to be.

And one more thing I would like to share with you is, don’t target too many things. In targeting all you may end up with nothing. So, know exactly what you want from life and target the right things. In today’s time where there is no end to the luxury items one can have (as you view it), it’s possible to get tempted and carried away by the hunger of having more and more. The thing is that we keep on adding so many things to our list of success that we don’t realise the actual importance of having them. We don’t care to see whether those who have it are actually happy having it or not. In our quest for more and more we tend to ignore what really matters. We don’t appreciate what we have and how better we are off from others. To know it do one thing. Select the best item among anything of value you possess, the one you are proud of, and see how eagerly it has been sought by others or how you would have sought it if you didn’t have it or maybe how you sought it once. So rejoice in what you have. Celebrate your possessions. Don’t be tempted to have everything you can lay your hands upon. Instead know precisely what you want and then target it with full commitment. And it’s not only about possessions, it’s also about the different things we wish to attain like: Getting to power, having fame, creating a name or establishing an identity in the society and many more similar kinds of things to which there's no end.

Lin Yutang said “The secret of contentment is the discovery of every man of his own powers and limitations, finding satisfaction in a line of activity which he can do well, plus the wisdom to know that his place, no matter how important or successful he is, never counts very much in the universe. A man may very well be so successful in craving a name for himself in his field that he begins to imagine himself indispensable or omnipotent. He is eaten up by some secret ambition, and then good-bye to all contentment. Sometimes it is more important to know what one cannot do then what one can do. So much restlessness is due to the fact that man does not know what he wants, or he wants too many things, or perhaps he wants to be somebody else, to be anybody except himself. The courage is of being one’s genuine self, of standing alone and of not wanting to be somebody else.” So, sometimes being simple is enough.

CAN ALSO CAN, CANNOT ALSO CAN

Can also can, Cannot also can. Since the day I have come across this phrase (I don't remember when), it has stayed in my mind like forever. It's one of the unique and most interesting thing I have ever come across and I love to use it on odd occasions. A few google searches revealed that its a Singaporean phrase, which is not used much by them nowadays. 

This simple and yet exciting term means that the thing can go either way. A simple translation for what we use in our local language "Ho bhi sakta hai, nhi bhi ho sakta hai." In short, 'Anything is possible'. Even after a lot of brainstorming I wasn't able to come up with any idea how can I present it to others. What all can I write on it? A simple mentioning with a definition seemed too less to discuss here. But since I wanted to share it with you all I am finally going ahead with this simple write-up only after having it in my draft for 3 years. 

So, don't you find this phrase exciting? If so, then try to use it wherever you can and get others excited about it as well. 

A Walk In The Nature

 

I like to walk in the nature. There’s nothing more pleasurable than a simple walk in the eternal beauty of the environment. It feels so calm, so relaxing and so soothing that the feeling of it just can’t simply be defined in words. With lush greenery around and beautiful views to capture in one’s eyes, the journey itself becomes a memorable one. There are so many things that one can fall in love with while taking a simple walk in this green world. It could be the calmness of the weather that build around them which they get to feel well deep within or it could be the sounds of the nature, the chirpings of the birds that one gets to hear when they take a one in the early hours of the morning.  

Undoubtedly, the best walk is the one taken at that hour when the day has just started to break. There are so many lovely things that one gets to experience at that hour. They get to see the sky changing its colour, birds rising from their nests, flying high in the sky and filing the surroundings with their chirpings, one gets to feel the morning air on their face which seems like its cleansing their soul. You also get to see a good fog around you with bit coolness in the weather which shivers you and send a chill within your body when you take a one on a nice winter morning. These all things seem extremely delightful as you get to experience the lovely surrounding environment closely. More importantly, you get to see the city getting back to life for the day. There are so many lovely things apart from these which one gets to experience in a single walk which would lift their mood and spirit completely which would make them feel energised for the whole day. Though I am a very lazy kind of a guy and not a morning person, but still I too got the chance to experience all these things on few occasions in my life, especially at the times when I participated in half marathons. There’s something special about it which I think is best known when experienced rather than reading about it at some place or seeing videos related to it. The energy that gets built around you by seeing your fellow runners along with the feeling all those wonderful things of the nature has to offer generates within you make it all a pleasing experience.

The thing is that I love walking so much that I can walk effortlessly for hours. You can take me anywhere you want on foot. There’s some certain kind of pleasure I get in walking. But nothing is more pleasurable when this walk is in the lap of the nature. Though every such walk which is taken in the nature is special but nothing comes closer to the one taken on a winter morning. I still remember the ones I used to take in my college time which are still quite fresh in my mind. The distance between my college and my bus stop was around 1.7 km. Usually as I used to have an ample time in my hands, I used to cover that distance on foot. The coolness of the weather around sending some chill deep within my body with beautifully set fog, with headphones in my ears playing wonderful songs and the cap of my red jacket over my head, made it all a perfect setting to experience the loveliness of that moment. That simple walk of 1.7km used to give me a certain level of peace which I feel was the most cherished moment I had back then and the best thing about it was that I got to experience it every other day until my morning lectures came to an end.

But the best walk which I have taken till date with nature surrounding me was at a place where I could have only got to experience the core beauty of our environment. I don’t know how many Kms I would have walked that day. But by the time I reached the top spot or the last location of my single way journey I was completely exhausted. Though I was feeling out of energy but there was certain kind of pleasure deep within me after reaching that spot to complete what was a remarkable journey. It would have been a more delightful one had I been able to make a return journey on foot as well. But the continuous persistence towards that top spot and effortless nonstop walking for around 4-5 hrs made me so tired that I wasn’t in a position to make a return journey on foot and had to hire a cab for it.

The place I am talking about is Sanjay Gandhi Natural Park which is located in the heart of Mumbai city. It is notable as one of the major national parks existing within a metropolis limit and is said to be the one of the most visited parks in the world. For my zeal to experience the beautiful built natural environment and to be close to the nature I visited this place and it didn’t disappoint me at all. This park has everything to offer, from great natural environment to fresh air to green surrounding to rich diversity of flora and fauna to dense forest to lake for boating to tiger and lion safari to river to a trail of 7 kms to the topmost location and the last stop of journey, Kanheri Caves, which in itself is a wonderful place to explore, adding further to your already existing long trail of 7 kms. These all will keep a nature lover happily engaged and is like a perfect treat to them.

There are various marked routes which one can take to explore the place as per their liking and convenience. Though the best way to explore and enjoy the journey in the park is on foot but you can cover the distance in your vehicle or you can hire a cab or a bicycle for it at the entry gate. But if you have a good stamina and love to walk, then you should cover the distance on foot. It will all together be a different experience. There were many sideways in my trail of 7 Kms which I took and the journey to and fro from them added much more Kms to my already existing trail.

The thing apart from the natural beauty which I enjoyed most there was the Lion and Tiger Safari. I was super excited for it as it was going to be my first experience. For the very first time I was getting an opportunity to see those animals so closely that too in their natural habitat. It was a 20 minutes ride in the fenced forest area. For security reasons only caged buses of the park were allowed in that area. For visitors’ purpose, only one lion and lioness were kept behind the caged fences while others were set free in the dense forest. Seeing the way the lioness was sitting in her cage I had only one line for her in my mind “As the name, so is the style.” Sitting like a queen on a throne with bit attitude was she, which was a lovely sight to watch.

Tigers were also kept in the same protected area. As I was in the batch of early visitors, I was lucky to get to see some of them out of their cages roaming in open enjoying the freedom of movement in their natural habitat. One of them was lying on ground and yawning like a baby which looked really cute and I didn’t miss to capture that moment.

After covering I don’t know how many Kms from the starting point, and exploring as much natural beauty I can, I reached the end point of my journey which is the one of the oldest archaeological sites of India, The Kanheri Caves. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit word ‘krishnagiri’ which means black mountain thus perfectly giving the description of that place.

Most of the caves there were open and I visited as many as I could to get an idea about how the life in that period used to be. There were so beautifully constructed that I was literally able to see the things as they stood at that time. I was able to identify their beds, the structure of their house, i.e. the kitchen area, the hall area and other areas of the house. Plus, there was a water storage area outside each cave too on either side of the entry which still had some water in it (maybe the rain water). But one could clearly hear water fall from some nearby location there. This shows how knowledgeable and advanced people of that time were as they had done good preparations for rainwater storage which would prove beneficial not only for them but also for many generations to come. I spent a great time in viewing them and exploring as many new exciting things as I could after which I reached the top most point of that area. It felt so relaxing to be finally up there after hours of nonstop trail. I could easily see the giant city on the other side of the park from there. I sat there for a while to take some rest and get back some energy while feeling the beauty of the natural force surrounding me. It felt really calm up there and I experienced a certain kind of peace which is hard to find in that noisy and fast running life of the city. It was completely differently world up there.

The visit to Sanjay Gandhi National Park was full paisa-vasool or in fact it was better than that as it was a day well spent. In all it was a learning experience for me. It gave me the memories that I will cherish for my life because a day spent in the lap of the nature is not easy to forget. And as I mentioned earlier, I would have made a return journey on foot as well had I not be feeling completely exhausted which in all would have marked my journey as complete. But someday, at some other place I feel I will be able to do that which would be included among my remarkable journeys in the nature which someday I will share with my readers as well.