The Beauty of Silence

Silence is a two-edged sword. It is golden on one hand and dangerous on the other. When words left unsaid, if spoken, would produce pain or humiliation and no tangible good, the beauty of silence reigns at its golden best.

The reason we say words we later wish we could take back, is the ease in which they fly out of our mouths. When you're hurt, it's easy to release your pain in a torrent of harsh words. Anger moves at the speed of light when it shoots - with ease and very little effort - straight out of a fury-filled heart. It's especially difficult to keep quiet when the words you're trying to hold back are doing a lively boogie-woogie on the tip of your tongue.

At times, volatile emotions aren't even involved. We speak without thinking. Our brains spill out, right along with the thoughtless words tumbling from our mouths.

Transform the arduous task of keeping silent, when silence is the best course of action, into an art. Master it with small strokes of compassion and great splashes of empathy. And, when all else fails, there is still the old standby: Bite your tongue!

But the danger of silence is brutal when a good person remains quiet in the face of inequity, injustice and unfairness. The unsaid words are complicity of the worst order. Be silent when you have to, and speak up when the need arises. Use your silence wisely.

Peace Out !!

India after CWG !!

I have rambled a lot in this blog, but I had to write.

An amazing CWG we've had over the past 10 days with Indian players performing exceedingly well. 101 Medals in all with 38 Gold Medals, WOW ! A brilliant opening ceremony and complimenting that a fabulous closing ceremony. Some superb surprises came in the form of Women's 4X400 Relay Gold, Women's Discuss 1-2-3 win, Medal in gymnastics, Shuttlers performing superbly (Saina, Jwala, everyone), TT medals, Tennis Gold for Somdev and Silver for Sania, Domination in Archery, Shooting, Wrestling. Sad that Vijender Singh couldn't not win the gold, whatever the reason be. In short, each and every athlete needs to be praised for their efforts and accomplishments.

But, lets look at the broader picture now, INDIA after the CWG !

I briefly want to touch upon a few points which need to be taken care of asap by the authorities.

1. Not even an hour has passed after the closing ceremony of the CWG, we have all the credit hungry politicians surfacing out of no where for a cat/dog fight. Each and every single politician is claiming that the credit should be given to them. Guys, don't you think its the players who deserve the credit. Delhi CM Mrs Dixit says that the credit is their for the way they transformed the Games Village in the few weeks before the games started, my question is "Why was a mess created at first". By resurrecting the village to the desired standards, you just saved your ass. The great man Mr Kalmadi, was actually booooed by the whole crowd during his speech whenever he thanked the OC and IOA. I just hope with the success of the games, the government doesn't forget the fraud and money laundering that he has done. All people accountable for corruption should be taken to task on priority basis starting from tomorrow. No doubt that the state government, police authorities, etc need to be lauded. But first you should have the heart to applaud and commend the athletes, their coaches, their support staff and everyone who have toiled hard behind these athletes whose efforts and achievements have got glory to the nation.
   
   
2. Proper facilities should be given to the players for their training and practice. All these stadiums should be used in the correct manner for all these athletes to shape them up for the future games like the Asiad or the Olympics. We should have a proper rapport between the individual sports associations and the players and also the government. The association heads should respect the players due to which they have got the glory now. For Eg : The president of the Badminton Assn of India, didnt even wish Jwala Gutta after she won the doubles Gold. A total of Rs 600 cr was allotted 4 years back for the training of the athletes for all different sports for this CWG, out of which the authorities still had Rs 500Cr in hand till March 2010 whereas the shuttlers couldn't import shuttle cocks in time for their practice. Rifles and ammo was not imported when the shooters asked for. Many places where the money should have been wisely used have not been done so.
   
   
   
3. Thirdly, the government have gone ahead and declared handsome cash prize for all the medal winners. These athletes need RESPECT along with the cash prize. What we need is a program for all these athletes and players representing India so that they can avail anything which will help them get better in their sport. Also, what I would like is that the government should give these national and international level athletes some kind of a secured future. Majority of the medal winners and athletes who represent India come from not so financially stable background. They need to be given some kind of a job security in the public sector for their future once they retire. There has been a case where a national level winner is selling his medals for money.Sad but true !
   
   
4. Lastly, we should also be lauding these athletes in future even if they maintain their winning streak or no. The plight of these athletes few years from now shouldn't be a common man like us waiting to get all their things done and struggling with the babus to get their work done. We should see to it that these athletes are not one of those forgotten heroes. Someone representing the country should definitely get more RESPECT and HONOR than someone who plays the IPL for money.

I know we need to look at the positives out of this CWG, but the above points just helps us with a reality check and tells us that its time to put our mind and energy in the right direction for the betterment of Indian Sports.

For us to become a sporting nation apart from Cricketing nation, children right from school need to be encouraged about their interests in other sports. The school authorities along with the HRD ministry and the other government agencies should bring about a change for the betterment of Indian Sports !

Random Thoughts !

There wouldn't be a day in our lives today where in our mind would be free of thoughts. Our mind is working 24x7 thinking over some issue; be it work related, family matters, girlfriend/boyfriend matters....the list is endless. How many of us actually think of bringing a small change in our life to reach out to others and help out the needy ?

Let me bring some issues that always ponder me once in a while. I hope you guys will be able to spare a thought over it.

• Spare a thought for the several homeless in the world, while we enjoy to stay in our air-conditioned homes.
  
  
• A thought for the several hungry people who can't even arrange 2 meals a day, while many of us waste a lot of food when we dine out.
  
  
• A thought for victims of natural calamities who have lost touch with their near and dear ones, while we hardly respect family and friends around us sometimes.
  

• A thought for those parents, who have to send their kids to work at a small age but can't send them to school.
  

• A thought for the kids, who work as domestic helpers and see other kids of their age playing and going to school.

• A thought for the villages in the interiors of our country where they have no electricity, while we recklessly leave lights and fans running when we leave the room.
  

Many more such thoughts concern me and am sure once in a while, they concern you too. But, how many of us actually make an effort to address them. We all are busy with our daily lives working 5-6 days a week, but are we that busy, that we cannot keep aside a few hours if not every month then at least once in a few months for some social cause. There are many places where help is needed monetarily as well as physically. Orphanage, blind schools, old age homes, etc etc all are welcome to voluntary services rendered by youngsters. We don't need to go far in search of someone in need. All it needs is a little interest towards societal upliftment. Any of the following can be undertaken or any other cause that is near to yourself.

• Pledge your support to a NGO or any social service organization.

• Sponsor a child's primary school education, it will hardly cost you 4-5 thousand rupees a year, but will help educate that child.
  
  
• Pledge your body organs after death, it'll help save at least a few lives. Kidneys, eyes, liver, skin can be donated after death. You'll just be instrumental in giving a second life to a human being.
  
  
• While you are treating friends on your birthday, you can sponsor a day's meal to any orphanage too.
  

There are many more such ways by which we can contribute to the society. I decide to pledge a few percentage of my monthly salary(when I start working) to one such cause. What step/steps are you planning to take towards helping the ones in need ?

I am not of the opinion that we should change the way we are living. We should party, dine out, have a blast with friends and enjoy the luxuries that we have. But, on the other hand, all of us in someway small or big can contribute, rather we should contribute. In the end, I can just appeal...

EACH ONE, HELP ONE !

Paradox of our Times !

The paradox of our times in history is that,

We have taller buildings, but short tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement. We have more experts, but more problems, more medicines, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much; spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get too tired, read too seldom, stare at the comp too much, but pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but have reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too much. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; We've added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor, We've conquered outer space, but fail to reach inner space; We've done larger things but hardly done better things.

We've tried to clean the air, but have polluted our soul; We've split the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men and short character; steep profits and shallow relationships. These our the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These our days of two incomes, but more divorces and of fancier houses, but broken homes.

We've gone so ahead in time and in this fast paced life, that we tend to forget some basic things which can get happiness in our lives. We have build more computers to hold more information, but have less communication. We have the time to Tweet, write Facebook wall posts, but don't have the drive within us to call, speak and just have a two minute conversation. Believe me this two minute conversation will surely be much more pleasing than an exchange of thoughts via the social networking bandwagon.

RESPECT..COMPANIONSHIP..POSITIVITY........all this seems to be lost and hard to be found....Sad but True !!

Holi and Colors of Life

Holi..a festival of colors, a festival of love and unity and a celebration of good over evil...Its a time when we forget everything and just enjoy our heart out with our near and dear ones.

A very amateur attempt in describing holi in a poetic fashion along with conveying a message !

Holi ka tyohaar aaya..

anek anek khushiyaan laaya..

kai rangon se bhara hai ye..

apno ko apno se baandhta hai ye !!

Holi mein jis tarah..

lakdi ko prajvalit kiya jaata hai..

ye darshaate ki jeevan mein sadaiv..

burai par achchai ki jeet ko hi paya jaata hai !!

Hum bhi apne andar base..

uss bure insaan ko jala sakte hai..

viparit disha mein na bhatakte hue aise..

hum bhi ek sunhera kal paa sakte hai !!

Rangon se aao iss maahaul ko hum aise bhar de..

bure vichaaron par pichkaari se paani maar de..

gujiyaa jaise meethe khayaalon se apna hriday bhar sake ..

aur bhang ke nashe jaisa pyaar ka nasha dusron ko de sake !!

Anya kai rang aise bhi hote hai..

jaise nafrat, jalan, klesh aur naaraazgi..

aur zindagi mein kai saare aise pal bhi hote hai..

jinmein hum aaj bhi dhundte hai thodi si saadgi !!

Doston..is rangeen avsar par..

aao milke kuch aisa kar jaye..

unn kam naseeb walo ke dvaar par..

hum khushiyon ke rang bhare gubbbaare fod aaye !!

May God gift everyone all the colors of life, colors of joy and happiness, colors of friendship, colors of love and all the other colors you want to paint in your life. HAPPY HOLI !!

Suicide is NOT the Solution !!

Newspaper heading: 7 year old hangs herself and ends life…suicide committed by a 10 year old boy…3 more suicides in the city yesterday…

Since a past few months, as soon as we started reading the newspaper, what we come across was the number of suicides and suicide attempts that increased day by day. It’s really tough to understand as to how the children or the youth is driven to take such a cowardly step of ending one’s life. Is it the pressure from the parents or peers or even school which pushes you to this extent?

People have started blaming reality television serials which have started young aspirants who have failed to win as to the reason behind their suicides. In another case, a young girl was not allowed to pursue her passion to dance by her parents. She was stopped from attending dance classes as the parents thought it is affecting her studies. An immediate speed breaker to her passion came in the form of her parents and she committed suicide. I completely agree that studies are important in a child’s life, but the child needs some space to pursue what he or she dreams of. Parents need to talk it out with their kids and channelize their passion into results.

Exams and the pressure of not scoring well and as per the expectations of people around you, be it your parents or relatives or even teachers keep on increasing as they start comparing with other children around. Every child has its own plus points and shortcomings. Parents should understand that. I came across another article in the paper where in a young girl aspiring to be a chartered accountant, did not do well in her exams and ended her life due to that. The basic understanding that one should not take failure to heart but consider it as a stepping stone to success has to be grilled into the students and everyone around because Success is waiting for you with open arms on the other side. Just remember one mantra: If I can’t run I’ll walk..If I can’t walk I’ll crawl but I’ll definitely reach the finishing line one day. There is no substitute for hard work, but failure shouldn’t dampen your ability to work towards your goal.

Winston Churchill once said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

People should understand that in any competition there is only one winner, but everyone who does not win is not a loser but a LEARNER. I believe that we should have counselors coming in the school and having interactive sessions with students as well as teachers. It will be great if even parents take this counseling as to how to approach kids when they feel that the world has come down on them. Especially now when exams are nearing and students start getting pressurized, something must be done to lessen the pressure they are facing. Exams should be taken as a test for one’s own capabilities and not to prove anything to anyone.

Life is a precious gift that we have got from God, use it in the right direction and in the right spirit. In the end, I would like to say “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

STOP SUICIDES…ENJOY LIFE!!

Disclaimer

Guys,

Fact is I'm very bad at writing. Always used to be bellow par in essay writing in school. This is my first attempt to blog. Had my account created years back but didn't know what to write all this while. But I guess, blogging is just a medium to convert your thoughts into words and there's no one here to correct your grammar or grade you on the complexity of the language you use. My aim is that my thoughts need to be conveyed in a simple manner. Hence my 1st post is titled Disclaimer so that people don't have high expectations from my blogging. :)

Yaar that doesn't mean you can't comment. Please feel free to curse my writing...you can praise sometimes too !!

P.S. : Punticool was the username of my very 1st email..hence my blog is named in the manner it is.

The Beginning of a Journey

Life is always full of challenges. Imagine a life where you are not challenged by a task or someone around, I am sure it would be very boring and monotonous too. I have also come across so many challenges in life. Its not that I have become an oldie. I was just 24. and I came across the biggest challenge in my life till date , a medical ailment. I was up against Chronic Renal Failure and in layman’s language, my kidneys, both of them, have stopped functioning.

Let me elaborate now. It was the 28^th of April 2008 and I was in the USA studying my Masters in Electrical Engineering. I was walking to school which is just a 5 minute walk. After reaching school I felt so weak that I had rush to find the nearest sofa and sit there for a while. Boy, this feeling was weird. I have been a sports person all round and feeling fatigued after a 5 minute walk was something crazy. I ignored it saying that I might be tired as I had played 6 hours of cricket on the previous day. The next day, it was the same issue. Now I thought the something is medically wrong with me. On 30^th April, I went to the Health Care at my school and that’s when everything got started. They checked my vitals and to their shock as well as mine, my blood pressure was recorded as 170/110. They asked me whether I was taking pressure medicines and I said “Never”. So in order to investigate further, they took a blood sample and sent it for a CBC test.

Next day i.e. 1^st May 2008 at around 9am , I beneath my comforter sleeping nicely when I get a call from the Health Care saying that my hemoglobin level is 8.2 ( its has to be around 13-18) and they were scared to death. They told me that there might be an internal bleeding so I have to get admitted to the Emergency Care as soon as possible. I never thought what I am getting into. I woke my roommate Rohit and told what’s going on. I then called up Bharath to drive me to the Emergency. Since he had a meeting to attend, it was Shiva who came along. I had never ever been to a hospital for myself ever till that day. I told the attending nurse what I am going through and there is when they took my vitals again. To their shock my blood pressure was recorded as 210/160. Unbelievable but true. They immediately started administering drugs to get the pressure down. They asked me whether in my family anyone had a history of High BP. I told them about my father and grand-father undergoing kidney transplant and also having High BP. That’s when they got a direction to investigate. I was told that I would have to stay at least for a couple of days before I go back home. In the night they did an Ultrasound of my Abdomen. I was curious so I asked the technician who carried the test about the result. She said that it’s the doctor who will tell as she is not entitled to do so. These goras follow the law and rules a bit too much.

The whole night went as a night full of curiosity. In the morning, a Nephrologist, Dr. Rakesh Gupta came to see me. I was so pleased to see an Indian doctor treating me. I felt that now I am in safe hands. As any other doctor he asked the whole episode as to what I felt and why did I come to the emergency care etc. He then said one line and I was zapped out of my wits. He said “I am sorry to inform you but you suffer from something called as Chronic Renal Faliure”. Hearing this I was shocked for a minute and then I started digesting the fact. Immediately all the flashes during dad’s kidney failure came in front of me and I was knowing what next step is to be taken. Kidney Failure-Dialysis-Transplant. So I was mentally tough and prepared to go through this tough ordeal. Shiva and Rohit were there with me and they were completely shell-shocked as anyone would be. I told them to be positive and take everything in its stride as it was not the end of the world and we did have a cure for this ailment. Dr. Gupta was kind enough to talk to my parents and make them understand the situation, console them also. Most importantly he spoke to Dr. Gandhi, my family's nephrologist. They both discussed the plan of action and I was at peace then. Definitely the question was there in my mind “God, why did you choose me” and that’s when a very dear friend of mine, Divya, told me that God only chose me because he knew I was a Tiger and tough enough to face this setback. I always felt “You only get bogged down if you want to”. I had decided from then on that I am going to be positive come what may as positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. I had friends coming and visiting me everyday in the hospital for the 5 days I was admitted. A chaos was created every evening. Since there were no certain visiting hours funda, my folks used to come in shifts so that I have company throughout the day. The staff at the hospital used to be dumbstruck seeing so many visitor's in one patient's room. Glad that I had a private room. Money didn't matter, as I was not paying a single penny from my pocket. Insurance took care of everything...WOW..else I would have to sell everything that I had to pay them off.

I owe my sincere gratitude to all my friends back in the USA and my uncle who flew down from LA the same day, because without their support I would not be able to face this challenge in my life. I was given a certain set of instructions during my discharge from the hospital regarding the kind of food that I can have, amount of water I can drink in a day,etc. My roommates and friends around actually searched the internet to find out what’s good and what’s permissible for me to eat. I was put on a strict diet by my friends. I know how disturbed they were seeing my state, but they always used to cheer me up. The night before I was going to leave US, I met so many people from my university. Some whom I’ve not interacted on a day to day basis also came over to wish me good health and a speedy recovery. I was amazed and deeply touched at the same time. My whole gang came to drop me off at the airport. Final good bye and hugs were going on. I was almost on the verge of a breakdown at the airport when I was leaving for India as I was leaving behind a beautiful set of friends, friends whom I thank from the bottom of my heart and whom I miss quite often. Love you guys, I know that your good wishes are always with me!!

In the end, I just wanna quote:

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are and get the best out of you.”