Minds Eye Of Life

The other day in midst of a long tiring journey from the airport I zoned out in thoughts, looking outside the window. What was I thinking? I was trying to fathom as to what's the single most element distinguishing mediocrity from excellence. A lot of us have this beautiful idea in our mind to be achievers of some sort. Each individual has their own definition of excellence. All of it leading to creating a happy space in our minds. But these remain mere ideas and definitions in our head. We have a lot of clutter occupying our minds. Some of it even includes being less appreciative of others success. Being too bothered about right and wrong of others choices. A bunch of useless thoughts which in no way are going to be helping us in our pursuit of happiness. When we are done with all the wining about the world and people in it, we get on with our mediocre life. We seem to believe that there is solace in the cocoon of mediocrity. "There are no easy ways, no escapes, ...

Life always has few surprise cards stashed away from the deck of cards you are dealt with. It's not everyday that you chance upon meeting people who leave you with these little nuggets of powerful message. Just the other day I was at this party on the shores of Kovalam Beach. Needless to say that after a long day of chatter and conversations largely related to work, the soul seeks a way to unwind. In midst of the busy gathering a conversation that I had gave me enough fodder to share few interesting thoughts in this blog post of mine. This conversation was with a man in his early fifties, I am assuming that his age should be there about. The conversation generally kicked off with the rhetorical question, "so what do you do?" "Travel photography", pat came the reply. Being an amateur photography enthusiasts I couldn't resist not engaging in the conversation. The next few minutes we talked at length about the places he has traveled to and some of...

"Difficulties scare you and me,  Uncertainties question our confidence,  Expectations make us doubt ourselves,  Belief makes us strong and triumph."  There sure is always a time when we all feel a little perplexed about the life we lead. In moments of silence we look back at life and wonder why wasn't it the way we dreamt it to be. In these moments of weakness we let into our minds a dangerous evil, self doubt. With that unknowingly we slowly get consumed by it. Many a times we know it's a dark alley that we are letting ourselves into but fail to stop ourselves. If we however dive in a little deeper within ourselves, we may realize that a lot of our actions are influenced by our surrounding in the formidable growing up years. Another perspective to look at this is, the surroundings might have been challenging but the responsibility of letting in creep in and influence our decisions was always ours. Difficulties and uncertainties are a given, it's ...

I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my name to be called out. It was apparent that it's going to be sometime before it would be my turn. I looked around, it was a quiet space. I asked my self what's that I miss the most in my busy day. A meaningful conversation pat came the answer.  I looked to my left, I saw another me. A smiling face with glitter of excitement in the eyes. I asked him why are you smiling? What's the excitement for? He didn't answer any of my questions.  I looked away and wondered why am I hallucinating. I looked to my left again, he was still there, still smiling. "You been thinking a lot these days, most of which have led you nowhere", he said. "Isn't it about the lost smile?"   I protested and I said, "Oh common, what rubbish. I do smile, and I do so everyday." But deep within I knew, it was another feeble attempt of mine to accept reality. With that moment of acceptance the other me sitting alongside m...

They tell us to be happy, be in the now, be present. But what do you do when the now that you in is the source of unhappiness and the unpleasant. The need of getting away from the now then becomes imperative.  The need is known, the desire is strong yet you don't move. You stay stuck in the now, whining and complaining. You feel you are shackled and tied. Little do we realize and accept the inability to get away is our own doing. The shackles are in our mind.  Sounds silly at times that we become incapable in moments of low in life. It's okay  don't be too hard on yourself. It's nature of human life, there are moments of high and low.  It's these moments in life that challenge our beliefs, our preparedness, our abilities. Some of these instances reshape you as a person. It makes you question your choices. It makes you look inwards.   It's true that sometimes you need to go away from the now to get a better perspective. Although its hard when you figh...

There are days when you are absolutely clueless about where life is headed too. Some of these days are those when you have taken off your hands from the steering. The kite flying high is a factor of multiple things. One of course is the ability of the kite flyer to maneuver the flight in the windy open sky. The other being the uncontrollable factor, the speed of the wind could be one. We all love being in control of the life that we lead. Maybe at times believing it's something we all need to tame. We kind of get hold of it too, begin to believe it's all in our control. It sure is to large extent. That's what we been taught. Some point along our journey we begin to panic. It's the point where we feel we have started to loose grip on things. The world suddenly seems upside-down. It's onset of calamity we proclaim. It's at this point we need to pause. Panic sure won't help us make things better. The clouded mind is certainly not a great judge. If ...

"Truth is tough, lies are easy,  Sometimes we choose the easy over tough.  To preach is easy, it's tough to learn.  The truth about learning is, it's a need,  To stop learning, is to become obsolete.  Choose tough, stay tough." These words were written a few days ago. Then they lived a lonely life in the draft folder. There is more to it than being mere words that don’t rhyme. I have always believed that life's journey is insignificant without the learnings, a big part of it. Learnings and lessons are lot beyond few hundred pages of a book and the four walls of a classroom. It's not just about the fear of becoming obsolete without new learnings. It's also about the loss of experiences that count. The other part to it is the choices we make. Most of us want to avoid the tough ones, in the hope that easier choices build a easier life. If there is one thing that I have come to realize, it's that there is nothing called as easy life. Ev...

"One thing that you should never lose is hope,  One person you should never ignore is you.  Being a happy soul is one's own doing,  Life is a blessed journey for all happy souls." These were the words I penned a couple of days back. These words hold immense value to me. As they are the words the heart resonates with. Attaining happiness is one of the priority items in many people's bucket list. Think a little hard, and you shall realize that you are talking about a variable element. Happiness is never a constant, but a state of containment can be. More often than not an evolved soul strives for happiness for souls around. Little does that tiny soul realize that it's like a source of light. More brighter you shine, more illuminated the surrounding is. - VJ Says Cheers & peace

The world will not end by my absence, The world will not change for my presence. Yet I question myself everyday, What is that I need to do different, To live and not to just survive in this world. -VJ Says Cheers and Peace

When things don't add up, When quelling within the mind doesn't subside, You keep questioning yourself, You try to weigh the options, All the math still doesn't drive away the confusion, And then you question your choices, Wish you had done things different, Or you simply accept the reality. - VJ says Cheers & Peace

"It doesn't matter what happens after you die, Whether you are buried or burned is immaterial. What certainly matters is how you live your life, Cynics will blabber, you just get busy being yourself." A substantial amount of our life is lost in thinking about the future and some more is lost in obscure thoughts about life after death too. Another chunk of our life is lost in thoughts of the past. In all this mayhem the most critical phase gets the least attention. That’s the present! I know a lot has been written about and a lot has been read by almost all of us. I am not a preacher of any sort. I am just analyzing my own life and hope that I make all possible attempts to live and relish the present. Uncertainties are part of life and just another to be accepted reality. We all know what should be the ideal path and we all in our own way strive to stay on the desired path. But we all at some point keep straying away from our desired paths. And then we need...

It doesn't take a long time for people who criticize cynics to turn cynical themselves. If we were to deep dive within, we would realise that shades of hypocrisy resides within all of us. Some may disagree, to them I would say, it still exists within all and may be dormant for now. As a society we all have individual opinions. More often than not we have opinions about everything. Even about topics about which we may not have complete understanding. Many of us turn arm chair critics. Walking forward on this path we become judgemental and eventually cynical.

Some battles of life are to be fought alone. At times it may seem that all battles of life are being fought alone. I have come to realise and accept that there is no getting away from harsh realities. On the positive side if you were to fight them all with the right intent you will emerge only stronger. The consequence of these battles may or may not be in your favour. I keep asking myself is this entire struggle just about survival? What about the intrinsic desire to live life to the fullest? Well I guess all these come along with some pre conditions. We simply can’t get away from certain responsibilities entrusted upon us by life, or can we?

Our life is a great mix of sugar, salt and lime, It’s like poetry with the right beat and rhyme. It’s undeniable that we all live a mortal life, Yet we want to believe absence of the hanging knife. There is a battle being fought by us with time, Every changing phase we lose and win few dimes. All along the journey we live million emotions, Some dreams are shattered and some are realised. Few defeats break us from within, Few victories make us feel invincible. Few situations make us question the purpose,    Yet we realise that reality is incontestable. -        VJ Says ~ Cheers and Peace

There few acts and action from which you derive immense happiness, but they don’t pay you to make a living off it. They may be hobbies you pursue, things that you do to have a happy soul. And somewhere down the journey you add the element of expectations to it. Instead of acts of selfless joy these turn to be acts of ego. Expectations somehow add to your miseries which you were already battling in life. Gradually you stop pursuing little acts of happiness and stay stuck in daily muddle of chasing the unknown to make a living. Until one day you wake up after a sleepless night and speak to your inner self. Cry out loud, question self about your foolishness and then feel determined to start the journey rediscover self. You start to put together bits and pieces of the shattered self. Feel resurgent and decide to start pursuing those acts of selfless joy. Fully aware that the battle of life neither begins with self nor can be brought to an end. It only transforms to present new si...

The biggest fear many of us breed within us, is the fear of being judged. I said breed because it’s an outcome of our own self doubt. We are all preached to follow the line discipline from a young age. We are also threatened that any act to break the discipline will only lead to catastrophic disaster or something of that sort. Success becomes the centre of our universe and every action or reaction of ours is presumed to be relative to our ability to achieve it. The aspect of being able to win the race becomes the only parameter to evaluate a person. In this process of mad rush we all forget the value attached to the paths we choose. No one is here to end up as looser in all walks of life. Success is desirable to all, but that being said it’s not always about the societal judgement which decides if you have achieved it. Be a rebel and shun all critics is not what I aim to advocate. I believe none of us need to accept defeat bogged down by critics. If we were to accept our ...

"His existence is a matter of debate, Some say it’s all about faith. When you feel you have lost the anchor, And life seems to be drifting away fast, All you wish for is to find that one hook. Just something to hold onto for the moment, Just something until the haze has cleared, And you will find the clear blue sky again. Its all going to take a while, But trust yourself, hold onto self for a while. All you need is some faith, some trust, And you will find the clear blue sky again. " -           VJ ~ Says ~ Cheers and Peace!

Simplicity is desired but not favoured, We seek comfort despite discomfort of complexity. At times we all question ourselves, Is it really worth it? Is this all? And then we have to make the hard choice, It’s always about moving ahead head held high. We realise the true spirit of life, It lies in not giving up but facing challenges. It’s never about the victory and defeats, It’s about having lived through extraordinary experiences. - VJ Says ~ Cheers and Peace

“Happiness is not always outcome of an act, Happiness is at times the act itself. A lot of times happiness is lost, Lost in transition of thoughts. It would be much easier to be happy, By living more and thinking less.” I wrote the above lines and began to ponder why so much fuss about happiness.  I questioned myself, “Aren’t there multiple avenues leading to happiness?”  I let my mind go a little wilder and let it take trip of its own.  I dig deeper and realised that sadness is the key to realising the absence of happiness. More importantly the existence of happiness gains prominence because sadness exists.  A relation closely shared by truth and lies and also shared by light and darkness.  Some prefer silence than making noise; it’s the act of making a point by not making one. One can certainly be happy without going out in the wilderness hunting for happiness. Seeking the known which is camouflaged and labelled to be the unknown is...

No point trying to hide and always being on the run. Why fake when being real is so much fun. Sure they all may not love you, Some might treat you with disdain, But who cares what they think, What matters is if you are truly happy within. I know what I just said, ‘It’s all just too easy to say’, Sure nothing has ever been easy, Neither will it ever be. Dreams, desires and destiny, These tales of expectations will be never ending. Let’s stop believing in the reality others preach, We all can make our own reality. But what’s the joy if you don’t try, What’s the joy to lie down in a coffin sad one day? We all have wings, we all can fly, It’s just that we got to try. -           VJ Says ~ Cheers and Peace