Just Give In?

                              You are where you are and can do what you can do

So just give in?Not on your life of course not! Like most of the best things in life this is so simple and straight forward. Shame it took me three weeks for the penny to drop. I guess better late than never.

I was 'walking' on just one leg with crutches following my op so as a consequence I also lost the use of my arms and hands; I couldn't carry anything I was making some toast and coffee one morning that finally did the trick and made me think differently.

To eat and drink these 2 simple things would have meant making a small coffee in a big cup, so it doesn't spill, and hopping from one leg to the sofa. Then back in the kitchen for the toast and hopping again on one leg to the sofa. It took a lot of effort that hop. Now I'm wasn't lazy just a little wobbly sometimes and didn't want to take any chances losing my balance and falling over unnecessarily. Also if I put my weight on the healing leg it would have been a disaster.

So, plan B. Get out the flask, make the toast, grab a mug and put it all in a plastic carrier bag. Take both crutches, as steady as can be, swing to the sofa. Take the mug out of the bag, open the flask, pour in the coffee and finally take out the toast. Job done.

Lesson - why make hard work and raise the risk when given a little thought there is often an alternative safer solution?

Pic for today-

Inspiring Thoughts,
Dilpreet

Life is indeed very funny

I have so much to write here, but off lately I don't feel like doing anything. Ahhh, here I am, back again to square one. Sometime I really miss Ramnik bhaiya's company. He used to be my teacher in Art of living. His famous line- 'Dilpreet- Never become football of other people opinions' and 'Life is indeed very funny'. I also learnt that sometime in life it's good to pause yourself, and make yourself realize that you are the one unique atom in this entire Universe.

It makes me realize how unique I am . Nowhere I can find the same kind of energy which is flowing into my body. It makes me so confident about myself.

Talking about 'Confidence', lately I have started losing confidence on relationships.The near past has brought a series of whirlpool which were so powerful that they uprooted the foundation which I laid with my friends in past years.

My mind is awfully stuck in one question i.e., 'Why do people fall back on relationships and sponge themselves into other materialistic activities?'. I understand we have to be multi tasking and should engage ourselves in different verticals in order to grow professionally. But at the cost of relations??

This made me rememeber the scene from Rocky 5 where Mickey says followings words to Rocky.

'Mickey:  And nature is smarter than people think. Little by little we lose our friends, we lose everything. We keep losin' and losin' till we say you know, 'Oh what the hell am I livin' around here for? I got not reason to go on.'

It's worth to pen down this in our diaries/cell phone/memos and start reconciling ourselves towards better relations...

Pic for today: Mickey discussing things with Rocky.. Love you both guys!!

Inspiring Thoughts,
Dilpreet

Habits

There is a belief
That if you do something
Every day
For 21 days
It becomes a habit

So things like
Drinking more water
Eating your 5 fruit and veg a day
Doing 50 sit ups before bed
Positive good habits

Beware though of
The snacks at bedtime
Chocolate
Cookies
Or limping? Mmm...

Practice the good habits
and beware of those bad ones
that creep up on you
and become a habit
without you even noticing..

 

 

Today's Photo- Still from Cinderella Man, featuring Russel Crowe and his downturns 

 

Missed University cafe on 14th night

Darby, my current process manager, told me and some selected guys to come late to office on 14th Jan (Friday). Since it was a last day to met process SLA's and we were sure to over stretch and would stay late till next morning. 

One thing Globalization can't do, i.e. to washed off time difference across countries and continents. With this thought, I started my Friday morning. As I was getting ready for office, with some mixed feelings on mind. It was my last day in Mumbai office and what a turnaround it was. I hated an idea of coming down to Mumbai; deploy and work on transition process for 3 odd months. I never imagined myself traveling in Mumbai local trains especially changing two trains, 1 Auto Rick. and before I can reach office and to curse myself , I had to walk 15 mins from station, in order to reach my office. 

But I did manage to survive and have had enveloped some good memories in my mind. My team had given me a good farewell, with chocolate truffle cake. It feels good when someone acknowledges your efforts and thank you for all the support. 

It was a normal day till everyone started walking off from office. By 2230 hours, we 4 guys were working on mid sized room. We were waiting for client's resolution on our escalations. We were hoping to get all queries resolved by midnight and I can then catch my bus to Pune. 

But things ain't happened as we thought and we worked till 6 in the morning. On a course of struggling to keep myself awake, I had planned to do some short walks and to constantly drink water. 

Nothing substantial work happened till 2 am and my mind slipped into past. On a splash of second, I founded myself working on assignment with my friend (Gurpreet), who is struggling to pen some words for his dissertation. During our MSc-London, we due had had spent sleepless nights. We would go to Uni around 7 in the evening and stay there till next day morning. During this, we used to sip many coffees from cafe, which was near to Library. I was so particular about my coffee that I would complete my order under 15 seconds. 

What a journey it had been for both of us, with a loud sigh, I came back to present. 4 emails were waiting for my reply. 

We completed and wrapped our work at 0630 hrs. By then, Darby and  I were fully engulfed in series of discussions. I always see Darby as a man of principles. He is a statue of simple living with realistic thinking. We arrived at station around 0700 hrs and he immediately boarded the train. 

I knew my train is scheduled at 0725 hrs and I can manage to have a long walk over platform. It was a fresh morning with some mild fog. A thought came to my mind that ... When it's foggy it is difficult to see through it and things can be distorted..

Life can often be the same if you are engulfed by something that renders all in front of you unclear and leaves you disorientated, then the fog clears and although things don't suddenly become easy they start looking a whole lot better than they did...

With this positive thought, I boarded the train and started my journey to home.

A Still from third floor of Social Science building- Brunel University

Live Passionately,
Dilpreet

Happ(I) 2011

Many of you would be familiar with this note, as I extended my wishes on new year eve. with this same note.

Just to reiterate and polish my mind on the moral being mentioned at the end of this note. Hopefully this will remain in my mind for long.

If I draw an objective of this New Year then it’s not that I should have a new year. It is that I should have a new soul and a new nose; a new backbone, a new feet, new ears and new eyes. Unless I made New Year resolutions, I would make no resolutions at all. Unless I start afresh about things, I will certainly do nothing effective- Wishing you a Happy New Year ‘2011.

As my thought paused in the pace of universe, just to wonder what else should be done to make 2011 more enjoyable, fruitful than ever. Carrying this thought since X-mas eve. My mind sparked with an idea to drive an inspiration from my past. So keeping the spirit alive of exchanging new year wishes with your loved ones, friends, and peers. I am sharing a tiny droplet of my past (shared by my old friend), which reminded me that life is all about inches. Taking and when combined all these small inches, they will make the difference between winning and losing! It's always a great idea to keep the front ground looking tidy. With this thought in mind, My brother and I had delivered a dump truck full of topsoil in order to fill in two large holes created when two old tree stumps were removed. The big mountain of earth sat there dumped 100 feet away from these holes waiting for us to begin the process. What had started out as a great idea soon soured when I realized that this big, big mound of earth was not going to move it and seemed overwhelming? All I could see, as I stood beside it with my shovel and wheelbarrow, was a dump truck full of topsoil; a mound of earth that looked more like a mini-mountain than a pile of earth that would be a simple Saturday afternoon chore. Oh my goodness, why did I ever think that this hole filling, lawn repair project, was something I would be able to tackle? After staring at this pile of topsoil for ten minutes wondering whether I should hire someone to do what I just couldn't see myself doing, an old Chinese proverb came to mind, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. The translation of this proverb to the task at hand immediately became obvious. I needed to take one shovel at a time until a wheelbarrow was full, and then keep filling one wheelbarrow at a time and dumping it until one hole was full then simply repeating the process until both holes were finished. You see, what I had to remind myself was that what might at first appear as an overwhelming task, or something I couldn't see myself doing, would be resolved by simply taking one step at a time, or one action at a time, over and over again. Projects, problems, or one's own need to learn a new job or career skill has the same application. Every difficult goal that, at first, may be viewed as an insuperable obstacle can be resolved when you implement a strategy that requires only one-step at a time. Each action taken moves you forward, continuous progress is seen, and the final goal is closer and closer until it is accomplished. Happy ‘2011.

5 frogs- They helped me realized my mistake

I reached New Delhi airport on 5th Jan '11 around 0430 hours. I was disgusted with a thought that I have had 4 more odd hours to go to catch my flight to Pune. I had decided to sip a cup of coffee and take a nap for sometime. Again, I was so very wrong with my decision making. Having a dosage of caffeine and expected to doze off after that??  This was the time, I read a quote on some advertisement i.e., '5 Frogs are Sitting on a Log. 4 Decide to Jump off. How many are Left? There are Still 5 Left because there is a Lot of Difference Between Deciding and Doing'. 

I checked in my baggage and cleared the security check. By then, the quote had planted a seed on my brain and the mind which was struggling to get some good rest, had started reconciling my last 6 months. I ordered a cup of coffee- grande- from Costa and a blueberry muffin. It was just 0515 am and I still had 3 hrs to board in. With an initial sip of cappuccino, my mind had struggled and got strangled in a spiral of awkward galaxies. My mind was working like an stock exchange ticker and in the process, it showed me all my potential mistakes- a young man could have made and struggled to get back.

It was 0825 hrs, when I realized that I am getting late for my boarding and decided to come back in present.

Since then, my mind is actively hovering over the same thought, ' There is lot of difference between Deciding and Doing'. 

Consider this as a vanilla effort to improve on my mistakes and thus I have decided to start taking action on my plans. 

Lets see if I can come over my past mistakes and nourish my inner soul with quality thoughts.

Many Thanks,

Dilpreet