Do Nothing...

If there needs to be a wikihow to tell you 'how to do nothing', then there is something wrong with the world. Why is it so difficult to set time for yourself as a person.

People blame everything else but themselves for not finding time to 'do nothing'. I think the world just takes itself too seriously...

Well anyway, if you still need the instructions book on doing nothing, here goes

People and Life...

I had written this sometime ago...but never came to posting it. I guess in some way this time of the year is appropriate for such a post, for 2006 has indeed been such a year for me...may put another post on what the year has meant for me...

'..People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person....

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically,emotionally, or spiritually....

What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .
Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life....'

~ Anonymous (courtesy Shiju)

Just set me thinking about the countless number of people one would have met along the way...Isnt life all about this?

The person who guided us, a bunch of lost kids back to safety in Sabarimala amongst the millions of devotees and disappeared by the time we felt calmer and safe....
the people who we meet on our train journeys, flight journeys..in airports...cards exchanged but never followed up...we sit and chat and then go our separate ways never to be remembered again...

Then there will be those rare folks with whom you connect like you have always known you were meant to meet and then try to savor them for a lifetime...the ones who you can take off from where you left it the last time you talked...

Hmm...in some sense Orkut and technology have removed some of the thrill of nurturing a relationship...

AFTERTHOUGHT: Maybe Orkut & technology are actually necessary to reach out to a larger world of connected people...

The Favor Bank

Photo courtesy:Howies

I read about this the first time in Paulo Coelho's 'The Zahir' (in fact I liked this much more than the completely hyped Alchemist) and I thought it was neat.
It works like this...you do a favor to someone without hope that it will ever get repayed. However it does get deposited into this Favor Bank and you could be making deposits for a long time..but there will come a time when you need to make a withdrawal and for sure, you will find someone to make that deposit...

While today the world has become a much more cynical place and the fact that 'nice guys' are probably still making those deposits only, I still believe there is hope and think that there is quite a lot of goodness in the world, that which clearly comes out in times of crisis (think Mumbai for its multiple crises). Yet we have become so cynical that we do not think anyone deserves a deposit because we believe that there is no one there to help us make a withdrawal when needed.

Now that I think of it, I can relate this concept to what Kamalahassan had so beautifully portrayed in a movie that was not a commercial success 'Anbe Sivam'. In the movie, the simple point that he makes is that there is a 'God' in everyone...(not from a religion point of view) but the fact that most people are by nature mostly good and they would have made a deposit at some point or other into the favor bank. When they make that deposit, they become God for the recipient...and of course he does not do it expect a return favor...

It is indeed sad that this cynicism pervades everything in life today....