LIVING THE DREAM.... @ Cargill global scholars program

Howsoever I may keep the pretext of not being a dreamer, I have realised that anybody and everybody, even though may look like downright practical freaks (oops that’s just me I guess), have their purposes shaped from dreams. The little girl, who my mother described to be independent to the extent of eating from her own tiny hands and refusing assistance from her, is proud to state that she has finally come of age in her quest of standing up for herself! She is now a CARGILL GLOBAL SCHOLAR!

The day I laboriously (hear hear IIE :P ) managed to complete my application process, I was more than relieved to be done. I did have some hunch of this being good, but good would now be too small an adjective to describe the experience that has defined a new level of good that can happen to anyone. Reading the first two lines of the mail I received in response to my application seemed like a no. But a closer scrutiny shouted a big yes, and I was more than happy to embark on this journey. Facing my first professional interview panel, was outright scary and no mincing of words here. You keep reflecting back on things that could have been or that I wasn’t smart enough to say something better. In the end, there is no better pretending that you did all things right and made through. And yes also read your name on the IIE’s site for confirmation!

The excited anticipation almost reached a crescendo on the flight to Delhi for our award ceremony and workshop and made my air-sickness even worse! But the smooth ride to Teri gram and the sheer tranquil beauty of the campus calmed my agitated nerves and set the mood right for a dive into our deeper selves that was yet to come. When like minds get together, an instant connection forges sans any effort. Right from the start, all the scholars shared a great rapport. Outlandish as everyone was in speaking, spontaneous debates and arguments did ensue at times. But these helped us to learn and grow as a cohort of future leaders. For a leader is after all that ideal blackbody that absorbs criticism equally with praise and must reflect back everything positive.

Pravah, a Delhi-based NGO that transforms youth for social change, took the onus of conducting our leadership workshop. And I feel that nobody could have done it better than them. It was like back to the classroom, only that it was anything but that. The activities were so simple in their outlook and yet every exercise made us discover new facets of ourselves and foster the leader within us.

The trust fall taught us that sometimes in life, you just need to let go and take the leap of faith. Plus the mid-air adrenaline rush is un-matchable! Facing our deep-buried fears and tackling them with our fellows and facilitators as the best support group anybody could find. Enacting out apparently crazy stuff and later realising that something as simple as an echolocation and playing batman can teach us how to evolve into better people. The case studies and exploring questionnaires prepared by the “pravah” team, though quite exhaustive to get through, imparted rational wisdom in ways we couldn’t have fathomed. It was like a looking glass had been handed over to us and we discovered a new world in ourselves as wonderful as Alice’s wonderland!

Cargill, I happily discovered, despite being a trading giant, is among the very few insightful corporate houses that takes part in all its initiatives from the forefront. An institute which has actually initiated the food security concept in our country way before the government should have. We had a visit to “Prayas” an NGO and rescued girls’ centre, one of the feeding partners of Cargill. This helped gain insight into the challenging part of the community that we as leaders are supposed to build and work with.  Interaction with the top Cargill brass and the rendition of the stories of real-life leaders was enriching beyond measure. Also I have discovered a guide and friend in my mentor from Cargill who I know will be a sheet-anchor for me throughout our association.

Finally we were upon that proud moment of actually becoming recipients of the Cargill global scholarship award. And yes in the Taj! The award ceremony was picture perfect, and our last-minute skit surprisingly went well and was applauded. What followed was a volley of camera shots, documentaries and interviews and with it the metamorphosis of the scholars into celebrities. Only we know that instead of a red carpet we will build our own carpet of progress and revolution.

Never before had the taste of hard work been so sweet. A fabulous stay at the most exclusive retreats, took the experience to an overwhelming high. I cannot thank my lucky stars enough, (if they exist!) for making me a part of the colourful global tapestry of individuals who believe in being the change they want to see around them. I’ve taken back a new, insightful version of mine who is now capable of bravely facing her fears, challenging herself and believes in her capability of shaping a better and secure future for the world.

This is the dream that has become corporeal, it is here and it is now!!

When the smile is sadder than the sigh......

[my first attempt at the poetry genre :) ]

Hold me close,

Let me be near,

Before the dreadful hour beckons,

And you disappear.

The tear that defiantly rolls down,

Will eventually pay its price,

Yet I shall never reveal to you,

this forlorn disguise.

Your wings are too precious,

Never allow them to be bound,

Fly away, as far as you please,

Let me bear my heart’s deafening sound.

When you leave your footprints on the sands of time,

I will know sheer joy,

Revelling in my own world of merry,

As I see the worlds become your plaything, a toy.

You try and re-live our moments together,

Thinking they might ease out the pain,

It’ll make letting go harder than the impossible,

A futile exercise, from which there is nothing to gain.

Afar I may be,

Let your sight deceive you,

I will be that invisible presence, ingrained in your glories,

Absently present in your view.

I may be a friend, mother or even a lover,

Anticipating the agony I will have to laughingly endure,

But the promise of being made a delightful part of your feats,

For my devotion to your triumphs is undyingly pure.

How I wish for this moment to be beautifully frozen,

An eternal photograph,

As I bid you the inevitable goodbye,

You will never ever know,

that my smile was sadder than my sigh.

Propose a Purpose to life

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” 

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes people, for this is a free country (debates aside) and I have a blog, so will write.

"But wait,you are gonna be in your third year,isn't it too early to pop the big question to your life?"

"Hell no! If not , I am already late!"

Dealing with life is not an easy task, admitted. But for how long can we go on saying, 

"I want a break!"

 or 

"I just don't have it together now!"  

By branding the fiercely competitive world around us today with the demeaning term "rat race" and apparently not giving a damn about it, one cannot downplay the fact that they are as much a part of it as anyone else.

Bollywood may have its own fair share of flaws, but at times it's able to churn up dialogues that actually stay with you. One such was during the lovable movie "Jab We Met" when the heroine gives a candid advice to the hero,

"Why hate the crowd when you are a part of it?"

It would do us all good if we take a break from scorning at the obstacles life keeps throwing at us everyday and embrace them as challenges and scopes for progress. Life is no doubt a struggle, but stay with Darwin's principle, make yourself the fittest and survive with all the glory!

"All this may seem easy in theory, but do you get it all right every time, Miss perfect" ?

"Sure i don't, but that doesn't deter me from dreaming big"

"Hey, but hold on, sure when you are talking about a purpose, where do dreams come in the picture?"

"Oh, they very much do!"

That is where the flaw in our thinking lies. When we try and separate "Dreams" and "Purposes" as separate entities. Dreams are essentially the precursors of our would-be-purposes in life. The moment we talk about "Realizing a dream" , it is attaching something concrete to it, or in other words, transcribing the dream into a wish for life and then translating it into a purpose. (Central Dogma of life people :P ).

The saddest thing about imagination is - IT'S NOT REAL! One cannot simply resort to taking refuge in our dreams for long. It may seem very nice and comfortable visualizing the things we want in life from the comfortable cocoon of our dreams. But only when we open those eyes and try to make it into a reality, that it becomes something worthwhile. At the end of the day, if you have been able to successfully overcome all the practical difficulties associated with your dream and shape it into actuality, you are able to cherish the sigh of a day well spent. We must all be cautious of the thin line that demarcates when we dream with a purpose and when one simply day-dreams aimlessly. Although day-dreaming has its own necessity (and that is not just for the romantic buffs), too much of anything is bad in essence. And too much of the latter will leave one with an aimless life, devoid of any meaning.

Howsoever, mundane day-today humdrum events of life may seem, but as they say,

"Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder "

Today will not be called a "present" if we let this gift    (Dialogue credits - "kung Fu panda : -D")

 go waste by looking at it from a virtual perspective. There shouldn't be any day that doesn't involve us making use of our full potential, dreaming big and shaping a drive towards it by setting a purpose - for the uninitiated, this is essentially self-motivation! 

So take it gradual, take it slow - well take all the time you want to finally figure it out - but it be a purpose that drives you to march ahead.

THAT 1% OF IMPERFECTION

To be human is to err. Try as we may we simply cannot get rid of this erring side of ours, which sometimes we wish never existed. And yet we find that the small joys in our life would’ve never existed hadn’t it been for this trait.

No one loves a clean washed road after the rains without jumping into the small pothole-puddle (and then curse the municipality after splashing in it!).We see a bunch of pups and immediately cuddle the one with a spotted coat. A streak of grey in a bunch of cottony white clouds brings happy tears to the eye of the thirsty farmer – a silver lining indeed.  All of us crave the perfect “happily ever afters” in fairy tales or love stories but not without the initial ups-downs, struggles, villainous schemes- in totality the imperfections. Oh yes, now that makes up for an interesting read indeed! And had it not been for the imperfections in the DNA replication process, the human species would’ve consisted simply of clones of one organism. That would be like looking into a mirror in every direction. SCARY thought!

On those blue days when all the odds seem stacked against us, everything seems to be falling out of place and it is a “why me!” kind of a situation at hand, without a second thought, we curse the person up there for being unable to create a perfect cocoon of life for us. From time immemorial, the terms flawless, perfect have been glorified and considered as standard references for any dimension of existence.

But the stepping stones to achieve them are by the means of overcoming imperfections. The journey is as important as the destination. And imperfections do make the journey- one hell of a ride! The process of our metamorphosis into a strong butterfly, into someone who has an ever-progressing attitude and keen on taking the world with sheer will power- wouldn’t have been possible had we had a perfect, sheltered cocoon since the start. We grow and fight our way towards our goals upon being challenged by the imperfections in our lives. Theses imperfections take myriad forms- competition in academics or the workplace, trying to get a revolutionary policy implemented in an existing system or getting the team together on a particularly difficult match day and likewise.

Imperfections, our very own idiosyncrasies are what set us apart from others. The very dystopian nature of human society is rooted in this fact. And even though the long awaited dream is that of achieving utopia- that’ll make our existence pretty boring, right? It wouldn’t be actually wrong to say that we can assert our identities as individuals due to our inherent imperfections. The world easily remembers where geniuses were flawed in their achievements and yet fails to see that it were precisely those imperfections that awoke the genius in them.

Just a look around and we see a girl with that hair swaying perfectly in the breeze, or that guy who grabbed the latest upgrade at job – a long sigh follows with the exclamation “why can’t I have a life as perfect!”

Before designating their conditions perfect, we must ask ourselves just once: do we even know the full story? The perfect curls or perfect job are all aftermath of pre-existing imperfections. Nobody’s perfect- they won't be human if they were! Power-puff girls wouldn’t be the same if their recipe did not include the imperfect chemical X! Science and everyday learning would be no fun without the usual anomalies or aberrations in them. Again who doesn’t look for loopholes or lacunas in the rules, to get our way past without actually breaking them – that is where we savour the existence of imperfections in life!  

Recognition of our imperfections and taking a holistic approach by their integration- is a far better method of self development- than simply ignoring them and vying for perfection. We do not need any guru, philosopher or shrink to tell us that! Pride your imperfections like your capabilities.

The Resolution – This New Year’s Eve

We pride ourselves, and rightly so, for being a very knowledgeable and well aware generation to which no new avenue or vista are unexplored. We have woken up to almost every loss that will prove dire for ourselves. Be it the loss of forest cover, non-renewable energy resources, flora and fauna- in essence all the factors necessary to keep the balance clock ticking on the planet we call our home. Industries developing today are self-reliant in energy production, have reduced harmful emissions and are more stringently monitored. Agriculture is becoming more organic by the day. Alternate career opportunities opening up are tackling unemployment and the “Homo sapiens” have given due consideration to the other species. All seems set for the beginning of another glorious year in this century of development.

However, among a plethora of signs signalling this advent, and a better age of existence, we have forgotten a very important loss- a loss that has left deep, anguishing scars on the face of the human society. It is the loss of humanity.

The society at large has failed to achieve a mindset which is free from any negative virtues or thoughts. Well, in our defense  society hasn’t been that kind or accommodating enough to achieve a utopian version of itself. With development comes competition. Following next, is striving to make our presence felt in an ever-increasing crowd. If a person feels that they are not getting the attention or respect they deserve, frustration builds up and rears its ugly head around us in the form of crimes or anti-social events of varying magnitude.

We do not need flicks like “The Terminator or Matrix Series” or “i-Robot” to predict when the machine age will finally dawn upon us. Look around people! It is here and it is now. And please do not be mistaken, no one is referring to humanoids or cyborgs but it is we, humans who have become the mechanical forms of ourselves. Never before than now, have we displayed such inanimate responses towards the unacceptable events unfolding around us. We have become so accustomed to reading about crimes against humanity alongside everyday news, that the humane feelings of anger, sadness and the drive to do something ourselves have long since been subdued. If any outfit asks girls to refrain from western clothing and threatens acid attacks, warns N.E. immigrants to migrate back, ban the celebration of Valentine’s Day or issues any such arbitrary censorship, mostly everybody fits perfectly in this new system and very few dare to question it. We have perfected the formula for not allowing rage to engulf us and do anything rash thereafter. We are too afraid to disrupt the part we play in our lives that now itself resembles a smooth-running machine.

The world started celebrating “Malala Day” just because it was decreed by the UN, never trying to feel the brunt of the Taliban; this brave heart had to face herself. Frequent shoot-outs on innocent people, brutal violence against natives or people of other races with the guilty feeling no remorse about it, show how effectively one is capable of strangulating their conscience and let forth the monster within. We may have clamped down child labour but sadly not child abuse. The unfortunate incident in Delhi was incorrectly termed an eye-opener. On the contrary it portrayed how effectively we have shut our eyes and ears to the agony and indignation, half the population of the world had to bear, for so long. Moreover, the taboo in our society which should be directed towards the propagators of such evils is erroneously streamlined towards the victims. Thereby their rehabilitation is difficult and their lives become a living hell.

Leaving aside the societal level and upon introspection of our everyday lives, we find that – decency, respect towards each other, a happy and united family life; have all gone out of fashion, now that there is a growing demand for “personal space” in today’s mundane, hectic world. Man is no longer social and once you take the “social” out of the “social animal”, you are left with the term with that makes the state of our lives toady resemble that of our wild counterparts!

As i post this, the end of the year beckons and its culmination saw various events which shamed humanity in not only our nation but around the world also. So there’s nothing better than to resolve to infuse the sense of being alive once again into our existence. For every inhuman incident, the no. of protesters must outnumber the “robots”. The light of the flame of humanity should burn through the cold and gray stagnant mist which has engulfed us now. We must shake out of our deep slumber on the path leading to the development of the human inside us. Progress should not be limited to the scientific, technical and economic fields only but moral, social and ethical progress should go on at an equal pace too. We make up the society and should be the harbingers of its transformation also. And this my friends will be a resolution which should not go unfulfilled.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
© [Anupama Sharan] and [something...yet everything], [2012-2020]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Anupama Sharan] and  [something...yet everything] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

WITH LIGHT...THERE IS ALWAYS DARK

The age old tradition in every facet of our existence is highlighting the bright side of anything and subduing its dark one. We all vouch for an uber existence as full of malls, high end facilities, speeding cars and every other possible amenities. We enter malls full of pride and awe and refuse to acknowledge the shanties and "chor bazaars" around it. We all drive away with pride in our vehicles, " bigger the better" , being our motto and fail to see the roads and our fellow humans being choked alike. Living in anything less than a villa or mansion is way below ourselves and hence we turn a blind eye to the mode of procurement of land, agricultural or tribal..why should we give a damn! We drive and curse simultaneously on encountering bad roads and prefer to turn up our noses at the open drains or overflowing dumpsters. Sadly we must know that the waste is the "dark" side of the "bright" consumer goods.
Socially speaking, apartheid , caste discrimination like phenomena and the ever increasing anti social diaspora today is simply lack of giving them proper acknowledgement. Ignoring the "dark" skinned, the "dark" lives of those downstream in the social ladder , and more recently the rights of those who live in dark, inaccessible places and are taken to be absent from the country's scenario. All this has been the cause of uproars and violent rebellions ( armed Naxalism an important example) presently and through the ages.
The many stresses and woes of modern life are pinned upon the hectic schedules and cut-throat competition in society. No one ever wants to accept that the schedules got hectic due to our mismanagement, keeping the small yet important things in the dark, not taking them into account. And the darkness of population explosion still haunts us giving way to the omnipresent competition. Try and ignore that if you can! The stress buildup in everyone's life is inability to express ourselves completely at all times, the democracy which is so hypo-critic calls upon us to wear a "volte-face" and keep our true feelings bottled up in the dark. Shrinks hence proudly display themselves as our only light and hope , we get dazzled and go to them to vent out. However that superficial method is no way out and we know that. Scorning at and hence ignoring things in the dark can be disastrous. Many-a-times we also keep things in dark from our family, thinking it would bother them, not understanding the illumination that discussion would cause and it would ward away all our troubles.
Come Diwali and there is no distinction between day and night. The whole town gets decked up with almost-bridal jewels of light. Not surprisingly enough though, this light is very effectively able to mask the heat and toil of the firecracker factories. The loud laughs, cheers n gaiety mask out the noise of unwonted explosions. Even the stifling smoke emanating out gets an almost attractive shimmer to it. This is the dark that the brightest of all festivals in our country hides.

On a philosophical note  one can say that, the presence of light can only be sensed in the dark.The harmony or balance of our existence is essentially the balance between light and dark. Judging the things on the "darker side" of life as simply evil and bad is a very biased view of life. We must remember that as long as there is no negative scale, the positive cannot be judged against anything. A full moon night is as beautiful and as dangerous as a new moon night in any predator-inhabited jungle or with respect to high-tide phenomena in seas and oceans. Light and dark are two extremes of "the shades of grey" and represent the respective stoppages to the ever ongoing transition of existence, light being its Utopian and dark being its Dystopian version.However, the concept of light and dark is a perception based one, and we may be actually endorsing something dark without even knowing it (like moral policing or khap panchayat decisions). Life only in the light without any flicks of dark becomes perfect and boring, it is the dark imperfections which add excitement and the scope for betterment and progress in life. We all sure do love "happy endings" but please people, it is time to get the real picture around us and prevent the sad and "dark" endings before it is too late. The bright light around can be a very well illusion by which we should not be easily fooled and keep blissfully ignore the dark. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

© [Anupama Sharan] and [something...yet everything], [2012-2020]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Anupama Sharan] and  [something...yet everything] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

A THING OF BEAUTY

Back to the pavilion of my college life and quite a few days into my 2^nd year, I am still amazed by the beauty of my college. It is not bound by any dimensions, time or season of the year. A shortcut here, an unexplored path not taken before and voila! , we stumble upon a scene that renders us literally speechless.

Get up early to the first rays of the winter sun and watch the tall tree tops turn golden. Stop worrying about creepy crawlies and take the muddy way on a rainy morning and one look around will assure you it was worth the effort. Almost every other path in the college in nothing less than a beautiful boulevard, flower-laden trees dotting the frequently tread trail to the lecture halls, the giant ones forming a leafy canopy from the R’n’D to the main building, sheltering us from the rain and sun alike. The quaint or tranquillity which surrounds us here helps us achieve the much needed peace of mind when engineering begins to take its toll on us ( and that is quite often, peaking during exam time :p ). Just pick up the books, hop outside and enjoy a free mental spa which the hostels’ gardens provide. Sometimes, when our legs give away, refusing to tread any long paths in college, we crave for vehicles. Yet we are also thankful for the minimum traffic here, the moment we take the bus to a hot and sweltering, congested, city outside. “What a relief!” are the first words as we come back from the city trips. We may love to grumble during the incessant rains but stop doing so the moment we see a normal dance floor getting converted into a much happening “mud-dance floor” (hello Halloween :D ) during any party. The best way to avoid sleeping during some of the particularly boring lectures is by simply taking a look outside. The activity of any bird or squirrel is sure to both engage as well as amuse us. However one should be careful to not linger long enough for the teacher to actually notice!!! :p

In fact BIT is kind of a best place for hiking & nature trails. So every weekend instead of hopping on the bus for a hectic ride to city, take a bag-pack and explore the campus to keep discovering new facets of its amazingness ( we shouldn’t need treasure hunt or Scotland yard every time for that). Yes there are many out-of-reach places but that is what gives the parents’ a good night sleep at home with attentive guards patrolling every nook and corner possible.

Enjoying the beauty of the campus carries with it a sense of responsibility to maintain it. It pains me to see people casually chuck off garbage on the roadside or the drain when the next bin is just is just a few paces away, riding bikes on campus just  because we have entered senior year or using plastics instead of paper or bio-degradable bags. Simply participating in the “green drives” organised by the EPAC club or occasionally vowing to help maintain the campus clean and green, are very shallow approaches towards the cause. We do owe a lot to the gardeners, sweepers who painstakingly keep the campus beautiful and clean. Sitting in the nature’s cradle obviously gives the campus beauty an edge but kudos to those who sweat-it-out to preserve it. Overburdened as they are, it is only moral & ethical that we shouldn’t increase their workload. Refrain yourself first and others will follow suit.

So for the new 2k12 batch, you will gradually discover the best part about our college’s beauty, that is gives a “sense of being home” to anyone who has chosen to become a part of it. And the passed out 2k8 batch rightfully chose this couplet to describe what they will miss the most about college life,

              “A thing of beauty is a joy forever :

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness” 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.