A thought, provoked again

A thought which was dormant in me from quite a long time, suddenly woke from a post I read recently. It was a post from a young boy who dream big and want to mark his name in this vast world.

Earlier version of the same thought:
April, 2007
Circumstances may bring uncertain ups and downs in the life, but the art is to remain what you are, keeping a slight space for changes in your life. I used to enjoy life with zeal and enthusiasm, but now urge for more has captured me. Have I changed?
I have to be same,
I have to do what I am meant to do,
I have a purpose in life and I should go for it,
I will keep this fire burning in me, until it takes me to the heights,
I am not meant for Wasting time on worldly illusions and beautiful faces. I have to reach somewhere. The life I got is not so cheap that it will vanish in the daily race for food , shelter and clothing. I have that thing in me, which can take to success. I can change the courses of rivers and bloom flowers in the desert. Yes, I can. Fulfilling other's expectations has slowed me down. More I try to fulfill it, more it widens its mouth. Some expectations are far beyond my capabilities even. Some are just for others happiness.

When I think about the same thing, I feel delighted that not much have changed in me. I have been able to successfully restore myself after all those thunderstorms, cool breezes.
the current version of the same thought will be somewhat different. I would say a bit more polished with maturity and experience and patience.
I am here, because of my past choices and circumstances. The events irreversibly turned me or I should say, taught me various things. The will power and the determination is now a bit loosened, but not the desire and urge to do something and mark my name. I have learned to learn from both favorable and unfavorable circumstances. I have become more flexible to situation(i don't know that's a good or a bad thing).
But surely, I am not indulged in wasting my life in the race. I have learned from the intellectual people, that keep on doing your work with full vigor and enthusiasm, but forget the results and don't get attached to it. That way you can give your best shot. Enjoy the work and don't think about the selfish motives in it. I acquired certain very particular skill set, which I should use for the upliftment of the humanity. Now the definitions of words used earlier has been changed. Marking the name, no longer includes getting prizes, recognition and definitely not money, now it means the remembrance of the name after the death, number of smiles on people's faces, number of times helping the helpless. It doesn't mean, I am going to leave everything and join an NGO. I am doing it being at my place, with my capabilities. It's like a farmer growing crops to feed people, a teacher teaching small children and a computer engineer developing a software to predict rain, all of them from different background and have different skill set, but they all are contributing in their own way.
Now indulging in the worldly illusions, means not getting into petty tensions and fulfilling the stupid expectations.
But now I know, the difference between duties and fulfilling the expectations, now I can make a demarcation between what I should do and what others want me to do.

It's this urge to learn more and more. it's this predominant characteristic of learning new things, exploring the world which is so vast and filled with so much wonderful things and phenomena. This was the reason of this thought, of this desire to do more and make a change.
I can remember a scene from the famous movie "A beautiful mind", where John Nash was asked, "what do you see, John?", to which he replied, "Recognition", his thesis advisor adds to this, "Well, Try seeing accomplishments".

Now with time, I learned that,
Accomplishments leads to recognition and that creates a mark which will always be remembered and will bring success with it. 
 

People we meet

                                                 People we meet in our lives

I think the people we meet in life and the loves of our lives are very, very important in what we become, like change us - when it's right, probably change us for the best.

Clemence Poesy

    Life is a journey filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, joys, celebrations and special moments that will ultimately lead us to our destination, our purpose in life. The road will not always be smooth; in fact, throughout our travels, we will encounter many challenges.
Some of these challenges will test our courage, strengths, weaknesses, and faith. Along the way, we may stumble upon obstacles that will come between the paths that we are destined to take. In order to follow the right path, we must overcome these obstacles. Sometimes these obstacles are really blessings in disguise, only we don't realize that at the time. Along our journey we will be confronted with many situations, some will be filled with joy, and some will be filled with heartache. How we react to what we are faced will determine what kind of outcome the rest of our journey through life will be like.  

        Time stops for no one, and if we allow ourselves to focus on the negative we might miss out on some really amazing things that life has to offer. We can't go back to the past, we can only take the lessons that we have learned and the experiences that we have gained from it and move on. It is because of the heartaches, as well as the hardships, that in the end help to make us a stronger person.

 But think it other way round, What happens to us, happens both by chance and by choice. What happens to us "by chance" determines our choices and what kind of chances we expose ourselves to later.  E.g. a boy may "happen" to go to a certain high school because he happens to live nearby. There he may "happen" to meet a friend who loves basketball. The boy also starts playing, falls and breaks his leg. Was it by chance? All of these events seem to have happened by chance, but all of them are connected. And if same boy mastered the game later and became a world class player, was it by chance too?
 Now Are we really destined to meet the people we meet? It’s like asking, why we do, what we do. For a moment imagine, every person we meet, we are meant to meet, no matter how long they stay in our lives. I being a believer of destiny, have my personal opinion. Every person is unique in himself and if we are being wise, we can always find something to learn from the person we meet. Whether they stay for an hour, a day, or 10 years, they are there for the right amount of time. That amount of time is simply how long it takes you to learn the soul lesson.

 If the experience seems negative, and this certain person really irritates you, or you feel like you cannot connect to someone, that experience presents itself in your journey to give you an opportunity to learn patience, understanding, or perhaps empathy. It gives you an opportunity to see yourself even in someone your ego categorizes as different, less than, or not good. The people we meet who seem special, with whom we connect instantaneously, they enter into our journey to show us that we are on the right path. To show that we are creating a path for ourselves that is true to our being, to our soul, to our creativity and connecting to people at higher levels proves this. If you believe that there is meaning behind every interaction in your life, then you will always be kind, patient, loving, and free of attachment.       

Sometimes you meet a teacher figure in your life who has taught you something you will never forget, whether it was one specific lesson or many little ones. You may also meet a person who provided some sort of motivation that made you exceed your own expectations, so you might as well thank him or her, but by then they may have left.

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break."
This is an old Chinese belief about that “if you’re supposed to meet a person, there’s not much you can do to change that”. You can find several different versions of this in both Japanese and Chinese legends. One myth say that it’s the gods who ties a red cord around the ankles of those people that are meant to meet each other in a specific situation, or help each other out in a way.

Have you ever wondered sometimes that what if you had been to a different college than the one you attended? A different school. A different workplace. Would you be the same person as you are now? Definitely not, is my answer.
                                       Memories are priceless treasures that we can cherish forever in our hearts. They also enable us to go on with our journey for whatever life has in store for us. Throughout this life adventure, people will give you advice and insights on how to live your life but when it all comes down to it, you must always do what you feel is right. Always follow your heart, and most importantly never have any regrets. Don't hold anything back. Say what you want to say, and do what you want to do, because sometimes we don't get a second chance to say or do what we should have the first time around. It is often said that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. It all depends on how one defines the word "strong". It can have different meanings to different people. In this sense, "stronger" means looking back at the person you were and comparing it to the person you have become today. It also means looking deep into your soul and realizing that the person you are today couldn't exist if it weren't for the things that have happened in the past or for the people that you have met. Everything that happens in our life happens for a reason and sometimes that means we must face heartaches in order to experience joy.

It is inevitable that the people we meet influence our lives to some extent. May not be completely. But every personal interaction has a role to play in our lives either directly or indirectly.

Why do we meet certain people in our life?
In Indian mythologies and sometimes in science, this has been said that while humans are thinking, they fill the aura with the vibrations and these vibrations affect things and people around you which subconsciously leads to coincidences to happen. Taking this thought a little further, the kind of vibrations that propagates in the space due to one's thinking affects other person's thoughts and if they tune up, they meet through coincidences (as we don't yet have proof of this), they both learn from each other, push each other on the path, they were subconsciously thinking about. People who want to be successful, who always dream about that thing only, keeps on working towards that goal only, end up meeting that kind of people only who motivates or helps them to achieve their goals, is it a coincidence or some unexplained science?
For those who don't like paranormal or mythological stuff much, imagine a person who has positive attitude for life, always tries to see the positive side of life, always finds positive in people and hence makes same kind of friends, ends up in the circle of same mentality of people. On the other side, if a person who likes violence, will make friends with same mentality.
Your thought process makes you observant for certain typical patterns in the society around you, or among the people around you. When you find that pattern, you find yourself attracted to that, and hence it helps you in learning something or the other from that. But if by chance, you end up meeting the different kind of person, they will not stay in your life for long, but they will also teach you something in that short span of time.   

I am almost convinced that the people we meet have a role to play in our lives and it is in no way a random thing. Everyone we know now was a stranger at some time. Absolute stranger. Even best friends were strangers once.

I tried, taking a pen and paper and writing all the influential people in my life, but I ended by writing only two pages, but there were lot more, few whose name I don’t even remember, few whose name I don’t want to remember, few who are still with me, few who were strangers. But thanks to all of them, for carving me what I am today.