3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!

As the ball is poised to drop at Times Square, it's about the time to bid adieu to yet another eventful year. It has been a roller-coaster ride (Thanks to all who made it so). 2011 holds a special place in my life. I did a lot of stuff that I never thought I could, I should or I would; loads of ups and downs, merriness and craziness, exploitation and exploration, pampering and hammering. And, after all this 'been there, done that' drama, here I am; all limbs intact – inexplicably, heart still pounding – sporadically, brain nerves still ticking – suspiciously. Thanks to the Holy Mother of all that is good and pure; I am still breathing. All in all, a helluva year, and as they say, "all's well that ends well"!

If there is ever to be a list of most haywire years of my life, 2011 would undoubtedly climb up to top the charts! It was filled with times of eccentricity, erraticness, emotions, euphoria, exuberance, extrospection, extrication, and etcetera. However, surviving the blows I mollycoddled myself with ecstatic moments. And I certainly believe that's all that matters in the end.

Thanks to Mother Nature and all those brainiacs who said, "365 days a year, that’s it. Shut it out!" Now it's time for a breather. Take a pit stop to refuel and rejuvenate. And step into a brand new, untainted, chaste year. I am glad to be on the verge of experiencing the warmth of 2012 sun under a clear blue sky. New Year Eve has always been an exciting moment for me, knowing that the New Year would bring me the most needed scope to screw it up big time!

You don't get to reborn – literally, but you always get a chance to relive. And that’s what the concept of New Year brings in; scope to make new mistakes and learn from them. Do what you haven't done before; face your fear, stand at the gun point, pee into the wind, blaze up the weed, huff the paint thinner, try and reach that dreaded extra mile, make some unrealistic resolution just to break them off at your will, love deeply, and kiss slowly.

All I am saying is make mistakes, but don’t be stupid enough not to learn from them. Die hard; take the mission deemed impossible; don’t be afraid of failures. And if the fear gets hold of you just ask yourself this question: Jyada se Jyada kya hoga!? And if you haven’t just died; picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!

Happy New Year! And remember; Prosperity is just a byproduct of an effort!

Go Nuts!

~Abbey

http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)

P.S.: Share your New Year resolutions if you will in the comments section.

The Child Is Father Of The Man!

Ever heard someone say, "Today's generation is far more advanced; they do this, they do that!"? And then they start comparing themselves with the newbies. I was wondering if this is actually some NEWS or just an old expression since Adam and Eve. My prefrontal Cortex tells me that nobody would have ever said that their decedents would be a bunch of morons (this is a generalized statement and should not be taken otherwise). I bet every generation grew up hearing that they were, in fact, the smartest of all that has walked upon this earth. They have the capability and courage to overrun whatever the previous generation’s laggards have left behind and render it kaput. What do you think the rational behind this behavior is?

The answer for this could be many folds, and just for the records, I am no Doctor or a Psychologist to pass upon my judgment with certainty. But as far as I could apprehend the situation it's the incubated aura that the incumbent generation carves out for next age group. We have everything modeled for us and what has not been done shall be done by some brainiest people of current generation. And this cycle would go on and on and on. There is nothing out of the blue here. This is what is expected. Isn’t this what the great Darwin said in his theory of evolution? Remember opposable thumb!?

I grew up in an era where computers were deemed as "fancy gadget" to be flaunted by Richie Rich people. Status quo: a child, from a middle class family would learn and type 'ASDF' before it learns to write 'ABCD'. It took ages for the likes of Da Vinci, Newton and Einstein to device some theories and formulae that we use so often to solve our problems ranging from finding a shortest past to our office to launching a stealth missile.

This universe is filled with mysteries and being the curious creature that we are we always strive hard to unravel it. We don’t like the enigmas to be lying around the table, unsolved, untouched upon. We have been handed over the knowledge torch, already lit up. What we need to do is to keep the flame alive and discover new arenas and avenues. We cannot and should not compare ourselves with people from different generation. That would be like comparing apples and oranges. So, would it be wrong and unfair to say that the next generation would be what we expect them to be and not the bunch of Michelangelos and Galileos?!



~Abbey
http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)

A Beautiful Mind!

What if I were to tell you that I am Opinionated? You would judge me. Some of you (let’s call it group Radical) would say that I am hard-hearted and obstinate. Some (group Casual) would say that I think clearly and have a strong opinion about things I talk about. And the remaining (group Whatever) would be indifferent. Now what if I were to change my stand and tell you that I don’t have an opinion about anything? Again you would judge me (that’s all what we do; Judge People). Only this time, it may so happen that you might have shifted from Radical to Casual or may be to Whatever group. And to be honest and truthful to you, there exists no science that would figure out which group would you be jumping off to. The reason being you have your own "opinion"!

Having an opinion is not a bad thing, but getting glued to one is. You read about something, you hear about it and then when you "think" that you have enough of information to form an opinion you go ahead and do it. We all do that, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s good to have an opinion. Isn’t that’s what makes us human that we are?! Having an opinion is an integral part of our nature. Now here is the real test; what would you do if someone makes you jump into a conversation and challenges your opinion to prove it wrong? What would you do in such situation? You would:

Option 1: Retaliate with the hardest argument that you can to demolish the person standing against you?

Option 2: Go into the conversation with open mind and if you feel, down the line, that the argument made by someone else has some credibility associated with it, you would accept that you were wrong?

Option 3: Be indifferent?

Before we try and unravel, let’s see what all is it that contributes toward holding one thought dearer while berating other. Whenever you make an opinion you would like to believe that you have reached to this point all due nothing but your rationality and your intellectuality. But the fact remains that other irrational factors has equal involvement. While the opinion is in the making it arises from: your knowledge about the topic, your values, circumstances, feelings and experience. If you think hard enough you would realize that every human being, at any given point in time, hold these things. And everything that we do is influenced, if not driven, though subliminally, by them. Now, for the time being let’s make a hypothesis that whatever we have discussed till now is true (I am saying hypothesis because some of you would not agree with me on this, but even if you don’t please try to walk along for the sake of fun). Here is the fun part; if you give the list a hard look you would notice that all that’s up there is subjected to change with time. You read, you talk about the topic to increase your knowledge and you know a lot more than you were aware of before. Values are a tricky business. It changes along with the situation, e.g. Lying is not a good thing, but what if it is in the best interest of everyone at that moment? Circumstances and feelings change every split-second.  And as they say, the number of gray hair is directly proportional to the mistakes (they call it experience) that we have made!

So now my question is, if all the factors that have helped you reach to an opinion are variable and are subjected to change with time, is it a good idea to get stuck and be adamant about your school of thoughts? Would it not be in your best interest to be open-minded? I know it’s real hard to flip 180 and go ahead to admit that you were wrong, but isn’t that what shows the character?! You can go along and debate your opponent out with you callous arguments, but in my opinion that is the worst thing to do if you really wish to explore the subject in discussion (of-course with an exception for court room trails and a debate competitions).

Ultimately, it’s in your hand what you would like yourself to be perceived as: The Great Debater or someone who has A Beautiful Mind!

~Abbey

http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)

Run, Forrest. Run!

It’s weird! I thought to myself on my way back to Pune from B’lore. I was sleep-drunk when an announcement overhead woke me up into my senses. I looked outside the window only to see shimmering lights in a dark, foggy winter evening. The airplane driver (a.k.a. Captain) spoke again to share his wisdom, which I was not interested in, but felt entitled to know. I was gazing outside the window, glued, mesmerized by the landscape, protruding a night life in an ocean with hundreds of thousands of jellyfish glowing in the dark. Suddenly, I felt I am being watched. Not by someone from within the plane, but someone from down the ground. Someone standing there watching the plane flyby, wondering if it could ever get a chance to board one of these. And I, on the other hand, amidst of all the turbulence, was hoping to land ASAP with all my limbs intact. And then, BAM!

A sudden thought rushed through me. And I, subconsciously, looked around inside the plane in a desperate hope to find at least one gnome who is doing something that I wasn’t - looking outside the window. But, Alas! With a feeling equivalent to hope being flushed down the drain, I found myself back on the course of gawking outside and got lost in thoughts.

Why is it that we always long for something that we do not have? Why do we strive after something, so hard, just to realize that after all it wasn’t worth it? Why do we disregard, more often than not, the things that we have in possession?  Deliberately or subliminally we all do that (Saints and Sadhus apart). You may say its human tendency. Couldn’t agree more! But my curiosity wouldn’t die down with that answer. It demands more! A concrete explanation, if there is any, is what I am looking for.

We set goals, we achieve them and then we move on to set some new ones. Apparently, this cycle ceases to exist only on pyre (though I am not certain about this; never been there). We are always in a hurry; running after something or someone. We do our level best, put our heart out, burn midnight oil, and sweat our brows just to get hold of whatever it is that we sought after. Knowingly or unknowingly every move that we make is associated with a motive. It doesn’t matter if that motive is kind or unkind, just or unjust, Mother Teresa-ic or Hitler-ic. We-just-do-it!

I thought as hard as I could to come up with one rational explanation that would explain this behavior. And look what I’ve got… no rewards for guessing, it’s Sense of Accomplishment! An ego booster! The feeling, the adrenaline rush, the testosterone, the euphoria, the nirvana is inexplicable. However short lived let that state of the mind be; it’s all worth it! After all that’s what we have come here for, isn’t it?!

In this society of ours we judge everyone around us; not by their ability, but by their accomplishments. And I am not saying there is something wrong in it. ‘Coz to apprehend someone’s ability we have to invest something that we, the Homo Sapiens, do not have: TIME! So what do we do? We take the shorter route acting upon the proposition that ability implies accomplishments. Just admit to the fact that, at some level, we all do it. Even Steffi Graf – the tennis diva - responded to an anonymous “will you marry me?” by what I call witty but darn serious answer “how much money do you have?”

We got to earn respect here. We have to do something substantial with our lives. And if not that, be on top of “show me the money, Honey!” game. The sooner we realize and embrace this fact, the better for us. So unless you are okey being treated like a turd, you better be running!

Peace-Out!

~Abbey

http://twitter.com/anupborkar (@anupborkar)