Grey Matter

old woman or young lady?

Man is a social animal, he is interdependent on the society for his well being. I brag that I am a loner but the fact is I am as dependent as any other guy.  I am fairly good at programming and swimming. I have worked hard (VERY) to obtain a modest level of expertise in them.  I constantly try new things like writing, speaking, drawing etc. I am a hacker at heart and I enjoy tinkering with things in my microcosm and discover ways to grow in the process. I have a strong support from my parents and am very grateful for that.

I started programming when I was 14. I wanted to be a game developer. I struggled at programming small games and in about a year I improved. I learnt from coding to animating images  and finally clubbing them all together with the right set of sounds. It is not much but to me it seemed a colossal effort. I figured that this is my talent and I must pursue it as a profession. My parents were not convinced, they felt studying and getting into a good college was more important. In college, I was lucky enough to get into programming through clubs. I built a SMS based system that would give me access to internet by sending messages, my friends thought it was revolutionary. I even built a small desktop application to send messages. People into this profession commended my work but my parents still thought it was a cheap gimmick. I worked because I enjoyed the work. I was like a dog chasing cars, I would finish a project and run behind the other. I am one of the people who just likes playing rather than winning.

I went with my instincts and did what I loved and eventually it paid off. My dad has an eidetic memory with respect to numbers so he remembers birthdays very easily. I (Normal Human) was tired of wishing people “Happy Birthday” by seeing the facebook reminders so I wrote a script that would wish all my friends for their birthdays for good :P. My dad was very impressed, he gradually started taking interest in my “projects”. He even invested in a server for me.  I did not understand how such a small app could boost my image in his eyes so much. I believe I had crossed the threshold. It was not the birthday app but my constant zeal of experimenting with programming for 7 years that helped me cross the barrier. (Wow that’s almost third of my life!). The situation here was a gray area. I saw the white portion where I an awesome developer . My parents saw the black area, where I was a kid interested in tinkering.  This lead to difference in opinion. Either I had to point out the white areas in the picture or wait till they randomly stumbled on the white part. Kind of like the image of the lady/woman above.

We all have our own internal microcosm. I picture it like a house. Some stay nearby so we can communicate easily. The others we need to put effort to use Google maps (don’t use apple maps :P), find the right bus, endure traffic  and travel to communicate. Once you reach them, further communication becomes simple. It’s the initial step that is very hard. I had to wait patiently for 7 years to convince my family that I was good at what I do because I did not take the effort t o travel.

My parents  were looking for assurance that I was passionate about my Hobby. The fact that I did not convey my interest was clearly a failure on my part. It’s easy to blame others because we see the white in the gray areas. The truth is we need to be open to the black area too. Any skill, relationship is a learning curve I feel. Some start out well but eventually you have to put effort to cross the barrier. Once you cross the barrier, the journey becomes smooth.

My dad wholeheartedly supports my writing,  personal projects and even gives  amazing inputs now. My parents are enthusiastic about my endeavor to reduce my carbon food print. I just had to convince them why I loved my planet so much . They want to join me in my monthly initiative to plant saplings too. I had found a page through facebook 😛

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. – Albert Einstien. If we explain why we want to do something clearly we obtain most people’s support. Communicating ideas and opinions is very important I feel. I have realized through failures that I need to improve my basic communication skills . The failures seems like lessons now.

Thank you for reading. I still haven’t convinced my parents to buy me roller blades though 😛

P.S The facebook page for planting saplings in Bangalore

https://www.facebook.com/pages/SAVE-TREES/237779238788?fref=ts

A Pensieve Trip

The Entrance

I wish I had a pensieve (from Harry Potter) where I could view good memories later. I would use them to push me from neutral to positive state many a times. College has a great number of such memories. I was lucky enough visit college recently after a year. I had work in the bank and decided to stay back for the day. It’s been two years since I graduated and my college NITK Surathkal is a night’s journey from my house.  I went with the flow and my instincts lead me to take a great tour of the campus and also have an amazing day.

Secret Bench

It started with me getting off a Volvo bus at the main gate. It was the first time I had a camera with me (My phone), I just could not stop taking pictures. I felt like I was sent to mars and needed to bring back evidence of alien life. I walked towards SJA (Silver Jubliee Auditorium) where I had the first and last official ceremony to become an Engineer. I felt very nostalgic and needed to recuperate. I had a secret bench reserved for some me time, I layed down there looking at the birds fly. It took a while to put myself back together and I decided to take as many pictures as possible and started walking.

Final year wing

I went to every hostel block one by one and took pics of the where I lived. I was shocked to find that there were taps still running in the bathrooms :/, It reminded of the cold early mornings when I used to run to different blocks with a towel and a bucket for taking bath. After first year, I stayed in with my wing-mates. They were kind enough to adopt an introvert like me and we stayed together like family. We played together, traveled together and went to mess together. I almost NEVER went out with them because I LOVED being inside the campus. (I still find it hard to believe that people like eating outside)

Mega Mess

I honestly liked the mess food. I enjoyed the routine meal schedule. I even appreciated the days they served the meals I disliked because I had something to look forward in the coming days. I liked the Masala dosa and the mangalore buns. Masala dosa was served on Sunday mornings , I forced myself to stay up all night just to eat it once. (It was horrible!). I manged to have Mangalore buns, once a month (they were served on Thursday mornings). Life was simple when the main important goal in life was to wake up early to have breakfast and get an extra ice cream coupon.

NC

Amul, Nescaffe, Crumbs, Coffee dabba and Night Canteen were some of the few places you could resort to “eatable” food in campus. I went to these places only to accompany friends. I considered eating here a luxury and going outside campus as dining at a five star restaurant. My parents gave me enough money but  my conscious did not let me keep more than a hundred rupees with me. I remember the times, I had to search for change under my mattress and in my laundry pants just for 10rs :P. I had mangalore buns in the food court and went inside the main building to recharge my phone again.

Vandalism !!

Main Building was where all our classes and exams were held. The classes are a still a blur to me. I studied only for a year. The rest I did “Higher” things like playing fifa, watching sitcoms, swimming, building websites and experimenting small hacks. I was a member of CSI (Computer Society of India) where I got to handle the college fest website and mingle with like minded people. I got to be a part of the Technical Fest Engineer where I could contribute something meaningful. Kids from different branches and ages worked together to make the  fest a great success every year. I worked from lifting benches in first year and lead the Tech Team before I left. Well, the road to self actualization is pretty crooked I can say 😛

Swimming Pool

First year was when I swam the most, I was regular, I played fifa, chess and even cricket with friends. As time passed, We got laptops. I got mine a late in mid 3rd year. I spent the “extra” time by ruining other people’s laptops, playing tt and chatting with people. I just hated going out but I am fairly good with people. When my wing would go out, I would go to a random friend’s rooms and spend some quality time with him. This led me to make many friends.

The Ground

I went to the ground next and was tempted to run a lap. There was still time to till sundown so I and kept running. I was listening to music, holding my slipping headphones  and running across the field in pants and slippers. Many may think it’s silly but I was having the time of my life. I did a bare foot run in the last lap. I had reached my limit since I hadn’t run for a year,  then  “Darkening sky” started playing. It’s a song asking for the lover to stay back, I  was so tired but ran till the song got over. I felt as if the college was asking me not to leave :). I drank about a whole bottle of water and hobbled towards the beach.

Sunset

I came across two lovers meeting on my way and I realized even I must feel the similar joy now. It  had been ages since I had visited the beach. Every Sunday, I would go to beach with my friend and meditate. We would see the Sunset and sit by the sea for over an hour. It oddly rejuvenates you every time. I went and stood in the waves for a while. Looking at the sunset, took my mind off from reality for the moment. While walking back there was a blackout but the lights switched back as on as if I had a Illuminator :P. I was lucky to get the last seat in the bus and was able to return home easily.

It was great to be back in college after ages, It taught me how to live in the moment, My phone was out of battery, I did not have a ticket to go back but I just went with my instincts and had the time of my life.

Have a nice day

You can see all my trip photos here: NITK Trip

P.S

I am not a great photographer,

 I have to thank my pen pal for teaching me photgraphy

 I also thank TeliportMe for the phone and the day off

Regards

Vikram Kamath

Bubble trouble

Aura one of the metaphysical things that puzzles me.  It’s very existence gives a feeling of mysticism and magic to humans, like a warrior in Dragon Ball Z,  Jedi or a Magicians of Alagesia. The closest thing that I can relate Aura is our paradigms. We form opinions about the world in our childhood and they  grow to become the bubbles through which we see the world

Many a times, we form opinions by seeing only a part of a situation through our bubble. What we see is usually the tip of the iceberg. One incident that comes to mind is my neighbors maid. She’s a middle aged woman who spends her whole day at their place. She has got shrill voice and can be heard throughout the neighborhood. I gradually got irritated with her cacophony. She spoke longer and louder to the children and yelled at cats! (Seriously?). To me it seemed like a crazy woman with a a microphone yelling in a strange Kannda accent. I learnt to shut off my irritation to noise but suspected that something wasn’t right in the scene

I guessed that she may not have a child. I asked around and the truth was heart breaking….. She was not only childless but also a widow, She lived alone and had no relatives in the vicinity. I then realized how lonely she was. In this superstitious world, where people associate portents with every negativity, she probably had to undergo harsh comments by society. Her added affection to cats and children told about love that was denied to her. My irritation was replaced by compassion and I am angry with myself for not empathizing enough. I saw my side of the picture and it was skewed. It was easy to disband her as crazy but hard to assume that there was something fishy

An example in Science is Newton v/s Einstein  Laws of Newton were considered absolute, until Einstein proved that they were a simplification when the particle was travelling at speeds close to the speed of light. Newton seems entirely wrong in the global scale but at lower  speeds, his laws are perfect. Judging by what was given to him,  Newton did a great job in mechanics possibly even better than Einstein. So, being in a bubble is good if you use your tools well.. Every body is in one

We cannot see the entire iceberg but we can approximately calculate it’s length by knowing the relative density of ice and water. Similarly there is no way to peek into others bubble entirely but making assumptions about them is wrong(Like how I did with the maid). We have no idea what they are going through.  I am fairly simple guy so it should be easy for me see the world outside my small bubble but I did not.. I can only guess that it will be much harder for people who are truly amazing as they have an abundance of experience 🙂

I know a very rich family that lives a simple life, it’s easy to disband them as cheap but very hard to look up to them as minimalists. Usually, its easier to look down upon people because of our ego.. Looking inside bubbles feels like visiting a different dimension. A beggar becomes a master, mother becomes a child, cousins becomes friends and friends become family.

Well, this is what I think. I learnt from experience that judging a book from it’s cover isn’t right. I hope gave a positive outlook towards this , Thanks for reading

Have a nice day

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Holi is the festival of colours in India. Colours reminds me of Art class in school. It was a 2 hour class where we could chat with friends and our home works were enjoyable. Art home works involved sitting in cramped positions, surrounded by pungent paints and blotchy newspaper. The hours of patient work would result in a rewarding A+. Art sir, was generous enough to give A+ to anybody who worked. I guess, 3 years of art in high school helped me inculcate patience to deal with engineering drawing in college and solve tough problems at work.

I want to convey how seemingly insignificant things affect us a lot. In context of colours I seem to have a fascination for the color blue. I seem to be drawn towards it uncounsiously and realized this a few weeks back. I’ll list a few things I like that are blue. I enjoy swimming, the color of the pool is light blue with the darker shades on it. Captain America, Spider-man, Batman are my favorite superheros. I like Argentina their jersey is light blue. The cartoon characters Garurumon, Lugia and Kai have blue in them. Obi wan in Star Wars is my favorite character and he has a blue light saber. I had a crush on a girl when I was 12 and she wore a blue sweater. 

I felt that I didn’t genuinely like the things above. I was just a pawn for this unknown fascination. Still looking back Sonic the hedgehog, Mummies Alive. Phantom, favorite blue car in my first car racing game (10 years). My junior school in Mysore had a blue color uniform. My mom bought me a blue box when I was 5. Getting to the suspense, the earliest memories I have are with my brother. I remember the day they got him from the hospital. The little tyke is taller than me now and beats me at chess :). He was placed in a blue cradle. Even I was raised in the same blue cradle. I spent my infancy and my early childhood with that cradle. This has resulted me to associate blue with sense of security and joy. It’s multiplied over two decades and It’s vast influence affects me even today. Being with things associated with blue gives me a sense of security.

Knowing this does not change my fascination towards it nor does it belittle the things that I already like. It gives parity to how I perceive the world. I seem to have learnt more about myself by this introspection. I can associate it better with crops. Some start off very well because of the right initial conditions like soil, rain or season but have to be grown with care eventually. Objects with blue provided me quick foundations but the entire structure had to be built with toil.

The human mind is a very sensitive to the senses. We don’t pay attention to them consciously but we are for the most part slaves to the subconscious mind which is ever observant. Events associated with great deal of emotion leave a mark behind. E.g monsters under the bed or fear of the dark. Exploring them eventually gives a better control over our lives and provides solace. 

Magicians try to attack people by taking them to a ground state with their scripted lines and planting hypnotic suggestions. The fundamental idea is our extreme points in life leave a mark and continue to influence us later. A smart magician/therapist uses this to his/her advantage and influences the subject based on will. 

Thank you for reading, I enjoyed writing this article, I pondered on this for a while like a case and finally got to the ending. I understood myself better by deducing this small fact. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Have a nice day and Happy Holi again

P.S the blog has a blue theme 😛

Regards

Vikram Kamath

Hear ye, hear ye!

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law…………..”

 

I hear this in my mind when I try to start a conversation so I just end up listening. Listening is the most important communication skill and yet we are not taught about it. Recently, I have been trying to be a better listener. I assumed I was a good listener but was disappointed to realize the contrary. I blamed people for not listening and chose not to speak at all. Most people want to be heard in gossip, tweets, social gathering etc. When our ideas are recognized it gives us a feeling of self satisfaction and reinforces our interdependence in this society. I honestly, am one of the people who likes being listened to. Not being listened to causes a sense of loneliness, It is similar to being with our relatives. They are close but they cannot comprehend our problems because our worlds are galaxies apart. We cannot control others but at least we can listen actively.

 

Active listening happens when we are free from our stereotypes. It’s not possible to change our perspectives entirely but we can listen with a clear mind for a short time.  When I was in school, our teachers would occasionally tell us a small story in the morning chapel. I would forget about my daily issues and allow they speaker to capture my imagination. This is active listening, It didn’t matter who was speaking, the tone  of their voice or my state of mind. Sadly, I didn’t do it when the same teachers taught us academia so I live in my parents attic now :P. I could easily listen to a story but did not do the same for my lessons. My point being, active listening is when we clear our minds and let the speaker test our imagination and reasoning. This happens automatically when we are interested but we need to enhance our listening skills to reciprocate it when needed. 

 

One of the mistakes I make frequently is correlating the speaker’s episode to my experience before listening completely. It happened with my brother, he would speak and I immediately pick up an experience by listening to the keywords. This is very wrong as I never took the patience to listen completely,  Usually people just want to be listened to ease their burden. Our opinions and advice is not really helpful in that context. That is when they seek empathy and listening emphatically comes with cultivating compassion. In a crude way, I find out if people are empathetic by observing how much they remember the next time we converse. Mostly people are forgetful so it’s not accurate but gives a fair idea

 

We are worse listeners than we give ourselves credit for so we cannot blame others for not listening. I have a lot to work on my listening skills, I hope I helped to introspect on yours too. Summing what I have learned an ideal listener is one who listens actively showing empathy with a clear mind. We can improve each attribute one at a time to gain good mastery over listening. This is the summary of a book on listening I have been reading, thought it would help.

 

Listen! Have a nice day 

Regards

Bare Necessities

I didn't have cable growing up so I used to watch DD1 a lot. The Jungle book (Shonen Mowgli dubbed in Hindi) was my favorite show, the Disney movie is also pretty nice. The song "Bare Necessities" tells us how little we actually need to be happy.

Now, with brilliant marketing skills, peer pressure and the speed of consumer products coming out the world tends to make us materialistic. The Apple products, cars, cameras, holidays are on everybody's wish list. Even I wanted the apple products a couple of months back and still want to buy things for my family. I am guilty for wanting as anybody. Minimalism basically teaches to want less.  I had a lot of toys growing up, I also loved playing with cardboard. My possessions grew gradually making the house messy. Losing something would mean hours of tantrum and bickering with my brother to find it finally. 

One night after a long session of coloring, craft and some arguing with my brother, I went to bed with a completely messed up house. My relatives came over next morning and they had no place to sit. They had to push aside the crayons, unfinished drawings to make room on the couch. The clutter in my life had reached a stage where I could no longer maintain it well. I looked for order from then on. I goaded my parents to keep the house clean. Cleanliness, is not a big deal but maintaining is a bigger problem. We can hide all the junk under the bed when the guests arrive but it piles up and we end up losing things we need. 

There are two logical methods to maintain a clean and neat room. One is to get a big room and the other is to have less belongings. I choose the latter mainly because it is always under my control. The zen teachings tell us to let go of worldly posessions to obtain peace. The disambiguation is to let everything go and leave a hermit's life but they are preaching to keep less things

While climbing the hill to Shabari Malay (A Temple) with my dad a few years ago, I was carrying a small coconut as offering to the deity. It seemed very light at first but as I climbed the hill, it got heavier and felt like a real burden towards the end. Many poets say that life is a journey. The lesser things we carry, the easier it becomes to travel right? With less luggage can we cover more ground?. I choose to travel lightly so live minimally. My parents could buy me whatever I wanted and now thanks to Teliportme I can buy things on my own too. I truly enjoy the serenity and neatness minimalism brings to life and it fits me like a glove.

All said and done, I have my own flaws, I take minimalism a little too seriously. I still have to buy a laptop, cycle and fix my leaking roof. Mainly because I am too lazy (to search for the dude who repairs roof), stubborn (love my cycle and laptop) and stupid (rejecting a free macbook). Minimalism means keeping the things you need and being happy with the things you have. One major issue, is when to stop wanting? Well, My goal with minimalism was to get a better control over my life so I draw the line when I feel I am losing control. Minimalism should not affect your goals and dreams. The ideal way to live is to look at materialistic possessions as check points to conquer while running and not really be attached to them.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing the best lifestyle. Minimalism works for me and I hope I gave an insight to what it has to offer. Happy New year and hope your wishes come true and let's work to make a better planet 🙂 

Good day  

 

P.S. The video 

Regards

Vikram Kamath

Game on

Every guy my age dreams of finding the perfect princess. Luckily, I found mine 10 years ago. It was a treacherous journey, I had to fight mysterious strangers, fly on mythological beasts and perform some death defying moves. I am talking about a game called Prince of Persia 3D. My brother and I would play it daily after school in our tenant's room. Later, we upgraded our comp and finally found the princess. Playing computer games or watching my brother play was a great pass time for me as a kid. Role playing games (RPGs) allowed us to play games as a character, we could live our dreams in them. 

I started programming because I wanted to be a game developer, I wished to replicate the magic of the cartoons in my life. I hope someday, I develop an online game that makes a few kids happy. The beauty of gaming is you have to level up constantly, clear challenges to ultimately win. I feel life is similar in this sense. One common misconception about winning is that it's associated with beating someone. It's not always the case. In any situation, we must look for mutual gain. It's like a shopkeeper promising special discounts to every customer for loyalty.

Our society is hard wired for competition, We are programmed to to beat or get beaten. The mentality imbibed is that the pie is limited so fight for your own piece. This leads to see others as opponents our quest to reach the mountain top. Do we really have to step over our opponents for success?. Wouldn't it be better if you took a boost or occasionally hoist others. With Games (RPGs) level ups, secret weapons are hidden with random people in the unexplored corners of the game. The best weapon is found after completing all the minor, optional quests… (That means listening to every old woman you find and donating to every beggar on the street). I begin to wonder is it the same with our life?

My meager knowledge of game theory tells me to work in the best interest for yourself and the competition to achieve the best results. Thinking in abundance is also one of the ideals of the Secret, 7 habits and positive psychology. So, I believe there is some truth in thinking this way. The best way to play is to ensure that you win every conversation and get the most out of every relationship. The conventional sense of looking at this is subduing people to display narcissism and making others work for personal gain. This system is flawed because we may never accept our personal failures and blame systems or find faults in other's. Since, we are either winning or losing we build up frustration and anger when we think we lose and lash it out in some form on other's for self satisfaction.  

I believe true victory comes in ensuring that every random conversation ends with a smile and your loved ones being truly grateful for having you in your life. One article I read advises make every person's day because you met them. In all the cartoons, I watched as a kid Pokemon, Beyblade or Digimon, Dbz they all won as a team. They won because they trained with every random person in fillers.

I have also come to realize, that's it's saying NO.  You can't win all so just play in your limits and enjoy every moment. It's all-right to agree to disagree sometimes. So, I don't socialize if given a choice but enjoy it to the maximum when I am forced to do so.. Though, I believe that I should be open to both, I'll probably take ages to get there. So, I play in my limits and hope to increase my limits someday.

The jist of my random essay is apply game theory to your life and see how it goes (Unless you are a prisoner :P)

     

Regards

Vikram Kamath

The Aurora Beam

I have been living in Indiranagar for almost 12 years now. I grew up cycling and playing cricket in the streets here. It's been great so far but the downside being my neighborhood is too noisy. There are kids screaming, parents yelling, dogs barking or couples quarreling throughout the day. An Aspirin and migraine is on the cards if you stay here for a while

I could put up with this in the best of my spirits but nearing exhaustion noise would drive me insane. I tried listening to music but lost patience with my playlist after a week. I then, bought the best ear plugs from from ebay. The moment I plugged them on, I knew bliss. I enjoyed my solitude in silence. I slept well, concentrated better and was at peace with myself. My peace was broken shortly as it became very painful to remove the ear plugs. I came to realize that I was damaging my ears and stopped immediately.

I now lived with my mood swinging with the decibels of the neighborhood. I came across a book recently "7 habits of highly effective people". The author says that in any situation, we have a choice to react. We usually let the situation alter our mood. The neighborhood was noisy but I chose to get irritated.

"People can hurt you only if you let them"

The author explains the story of a man tortured in Nazi camps. The prisoner realizes that he can be tortured physically but he has choice to let it bother him. He discovers a new form of freedom, an internal paradise which cannot be invaded without consent. He focused on this and learned to live happily even in the worst of situations. Thinking this way made noise inconsequential in my life. I had given some random people (and a few dogs) the power to irritate me. I focused on the a few happy thoughts in my life, I collected them and made my own paradise. As the collection grew, the noise stopped irking me. 

Noise need not always come in the for of sound, We are bombarded with opinions from everybody. Sometimes, they affect us the way my neighborhood did to me. The best solution is to ignore and be proactive. Choose to carry your own aura which is independent of the surroundings. Have an aura of our inner paradise which we carry around with us. If we channel well, we can spread it around like a beam 😛 

P.S I am a huge pokemon fan 

     

Regards

Vikram Kamath

Do you believe in Magic?

The most exciting thing that happened recently was Disney buying "Star Wars". Disney Movies inspire and motivate me. I look at the greener sides of life after watching them. Some rare occasions, I feel I am living them.

A few weeks back I visited my grandma, she gifted me 50Rs (I call it special money). My grandma stays in the other corner of the city so it's a day's job just to go say hi. Due to a delay, I had to stay the night there. The next morning was a roller coaster ride, I had to get home and then to work, A very long and tiring Monday. 

Tuesday was my cousin's birthday and her sister had planned a midnight surprise party near my house. I decided to buy her a present that evening and luckily managed to find a open gift shop even in the late hour.  While paying, I realized that I was a few notes short but my grandma's special money rescued me again. I managed to gift her in the middle of the night and came back to bed exhausted. I still feel, it was totally worth it.

The past few days, had been very hectic with swimming, unexpected meetups and the sleepover at my cousins. I eagerly waited to go home on Wednesday and hit the hay. To my horror that evening, the bus conductor said that my monthly pass was invalid due to the lack of ID proof (It was my first month with the pass so i did not know about this) Since I had been running around lately, I had no time to replenish my wallet. I fumbled in my bag, searching of some money. After a few helpless seconds I found  35Rs, which was exactly the ticket to travel home. Strangely I could have sworn that I had just Rs 15 before that moment. It was indeed a miracle. 

With more knowledge we tend to block faith. Our reasoning tries to disprove it with our limited understanding of science. In most fiction that I have read, the protagonist surpasses the invincible villain by a stroke of good luck. This keeps happening repeatedly. E.g How Harry always escapes Voldemort by a whisker.  Well.. it's Magic. Magic is not confined to spells, wands, potions or the Force. It's that something special that happens when we believe with all our heart. 

I pictured miracles as going to Hogwarts or joining the Jedi. I guess those are fantasies. The fact that I wake up at 6:30 and haven't tweeted for two weeks are very great miracles for me (People who have known me long enough will faint :P). I feel we all have the "Magic" in us. We only need to believe.

A quote from the movie "Bruce Almighty". God talking to Bruce: 

"Parting your soup is not a miracle, Bruce, it's a magic trick. A single mom who's working two jobs, and still finds time to take her kid to soccer practice, that's a miracle. A teenager who says no to drugs and yes to an education, that's a miracle. People want Me to do everything for them, but what they don't realize is, they have the power. 

You want to see a miracle? Be the miracle."

 

Regards

Vikram Kamath

My best friend

    Social Media is a great development in past few years. Internet bridges the gap in geographies by it's plethora of applications and social media. Social Media leads to form communities and trigger friendships. Now, "friends" are tagged as the one's who tweet, ping, comment or reply to us on the web. My question is who are our true friends in this miasma?. Honestly, even I don't know but I have a small story that led me to my best friend. 

    Almost twenty years ago, I was the prince of my house. I was pampered by everybody, I would get away with mischief using my Bambi eyes. This foreplay reached it's peak when my brother was born. I finally  had someone whom I could bully but injustice never goes unnoticed. I was punished brutally by  "Lectures of doom" (Shudders). Gradually my mischief's got out of hand so I got reprimanded more often. I lost the constant attention that I thrived upon. The change felt like being exiled from my own kingdom. I needed an ally to reign again.

    What I was going through was social withdrawal symptoms. I took a little longer to attune myself towards my new relationships. When things got uneasy, I started looking looking outside to fill the void. This is also imbibed in our society. Teenagers stay aloof from parents and seek shelter among friends. Adults feel being in a relationship completes them (Thanks to the film industry :). Later stages leading to more unnecessary drama. In essence every stage in life people are lonely and find solutions by looking for company (The ally). I feel that is a short term solution, it's like covering a leaking pipe with a cloth, water will gush out eventually like there's no tomorrow. Why don't we just close the tap? 

    As an introvert I look for solutions inside. My ally and best friend is me. The one person that is always there no matter what. I rarely hangout with others because I always have a great time with myself. Honestly, I am the only one who knows me well. Other's  form an impression clouded by dogma. I am pretty sure, even my dogma clouds how I see others. So twitter is my favorite form of communication 🙂

    Solitude has  seeped into my character and hobbies. I am most productive when I am away from people. My favorite pass time is reading fiction in a quiet room. I love long distance  swimming as it is best done alone. I get some amazing ideas when I am cut off from society.

    Essentially I have wired myself to enjoy solitude to remove loneliness. I learn more about myself by mediation and spending quality time with myself daily. I have a very very long way to go to improve myself but I know for sure I'll get there with me. Knowing myself helps empathize better. Forgiving myself teaches me to forgive other people's shortcoming. Also, asking myself what I truly want helps me live more minimally  It has got it's perks I can say.

 

     "If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone"