Made for Each Other

“Wow, I can’t believe it” said Mark. It was startling for him to hear all that he had heard in past one hour; he continued “This is incredible. All the while you were in front of me and I did not realize!!”.

Mark Watson was an Australian born in India. His father worked in the Australian foreign services. He had the privilege to see the world since he used to accompany his dad on all his foreign assignments. He was born to Mr. and Mrs. Watson on 4^th April 1983 during their assignment in Mumbai, India. Mark had lost his mother to a freak road accident when he was small child still coming to terms with the frequently changing environments.

Mark was an introvert. But he would never accept it. He wanted to look cool and hip like all the other guys. He went out to parties; he used to hang around with neighbor’s kids. But he could never really mix up with them. When Mark was 10 years old, he first saw her, in his dreams. A girl, probably in her 20’s holding his hand and telling him something. He could never see her face or hear what she was saying. Every time he saw the dream he used to feel dizzy and uncomfortable, a feeling of pain in his heart. The feeling would not go for a long time. He never shared it with any friend or doctor.

Years passed and Mark was now in his mid-20s. A dashing and handsome young man, any girl would like to date. On his voyages across the world he had tried to date a lot of girls, but they could never hold his attention for long. There was always something missing in them. On his part he tried his best but things would never materialize and a break up was on cards within days. He was fed up and had lost his interest in meeting girls or going out.

In April 2006, as part of a student exchange program, Mark came to Mumbai, India, his country of birth. He had special interest in literature and Indian philosophy. Somewhere in his heart he felt this could be the place where he would find the answers to so many questions he had since childhood. Surprisingly, Mark made good friends in Mumbai. He liked their company and wouldn’t mind hanging around with them. Priya Sharma, Aditya Kumar, Sandeep Patil and Jennifer D’Souza became his inner circle. They would visit all the crazy places and Mark would like the attention he got thanks to his looks.

On one such trek to a far away mountain, Mark and friends met a renowned Indian astrologer. Mark understood from his friends that the guy was great in face reading and palmistry. Since Mark had never told anyone about his secret he thought of “testing” the guy’s expertise. What happened next was something Mark had not expected. The astrologer told Mark some key things that were quite precise. Without any knowledge about Mark, the astrologer was able to tell him lot of things about Mark’s likes, dislikes, weaknesses and most importantly the astrologer told Mark that he was hiding something that was troubling him since long. A startled Mark put his life before the astrologer even letting out the vision about the girl. The astrologer told Mark that the girl from his dreams is his soul mate, his life partner and happens to be in India. Mark wanted to know more about her – who is she, where does he find her, what’s her name? However, the astrologer did not give any more details and said that Mark had to find her on his own. But, the astrologer gave him an important clue – the girl’s birth date would be 20^th April 1984. Mark had more questions than answers. It was too much for him to digest. 

In the days to come his friends took great care of him, helping him in his assignments, and other activities. They were always together and had loads of fun. Priya was always with him to help him in any problem he faced. They were drawn to each other. They had great chemistry. She would always guess what was on his mind or how he would react to something. He liked her and he thought she liked him too. On occasions he thought Priya would say it, but he deliberately changed the subject. Mark thought Priya could not be the one given the fact that her birth date was 10^th Feb 1985. The more he tried to distance himself from her, the more he fell for her. She was adorable and mischievous. She had great confidence and was a chatterbox. He was a complete opposite. But didn’t someone say ‘opposites attract’? Mark could not get her out of his mind. Also he could not share his feeling with her. Mark was caught in a trap.

Before he could come to terms with the turbulence in his life and failure in finding the girl from his dreams, it was April 2010. His course was complete and it was time to go back to Australia. In his last days in India, Mark searched frantically for the girl, but with no luck. He went into a shell. He stopped talking to anyone. His friends were concerned but they knew this was not the first time he acted weird. Mark was all packed up and ready to leave. It was a tough decision for him. On one hand he could not express his feelings for Priya and on the other hand he could not find the girl. It was heart wrenching.

Before leaving India, Mark gathered some courage and went to meet Priya. He felt compelled to tell her the truth, to express himself. He could not leave with this burden. It was late in the night of 19^th April 2010. When Mark reached Priya’s home, it was totally dark, probably some electricity failure, he thought. He was about to knock the door when it opened on its own. As soon as he stepped inside, the lights came on and everyone in the room started singing “Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday dear Priya……”. Then everyone stopped realizing that it wasn’t Priya, but Mark. ‘But wait a minute, wasn’t Priya’s birthday on 10^th Feb? Why was everyone celebrating her birthday on 20^th April? What was going on?’ Mark could not understand a bit. Priya came from behind, grabbed Mark’s hand and took him to the terrace of the building.

Mark looked puzzled, he had questions, he had doubts, he was excited, he was confused. Priya gently took Mark’s hand in her hand. She gave a brief but reassuring nod. Priya said “Mark I love you and I know you love me too. I always knew you were the one. I had seen you in my dreams. I knew about your secret too. I had deliberately taken you to the astrologer, because long before we met, he had told me that I will meet you. Mark, you are special. I am sorry I lied about my birth date. But I wanted you to gather the courage to express your feelings”. Priya told him everything about her dreams and how she also shared the same “visions”. She went on and on, typical Priya. A chatter box. She finally said “Mark you are the one for me and I am so happy that you finally came here”.

“Wow, I can’t believe it” said Mark. It was surprising for him to hear all that he had heard in past one hour; he continued “This is incredible. All the while you were in front of me and I did not realize!!”. It was so obvious, they were destined to meet and fall in love. Someone somewhere had already planned everything. Mark looked into Priya's eyes for a long time and could only utter “Priya, I love you and we are truly made for each other”.

Disclaimer: All the names, dates, places and characters are a figment of my imagination. Any resemblance to anyone or anything is purely a coincidence. You can sue whoever you want except me :D

      

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

I read somewhere – “Live life as if it is the last day of your life. And a day will definitely come when the previous line will be true :)”. Through the eyes of the world, our lives are defined not by what we have earned during our lifetime, but what legacy we leave behind. In pursuit of this, everyone wants to do different things in life, which will define him/her; things, doing which, they will feel happy and content and will be fondly remembered.

Life with Blinders

But how many times do we really do what we want to do? Do we really do what we love? Are we doing things for the sake of doing them OR we do them because we are asked to do them. OK, I know these are like big questions everyone keeps asking and I don’t think there is any real answer to that. If only there was a book – “How to Live Life for Dummies”!! :D 

I think the real question is - why don’t we do things that we want to do? What stops us from taking those bold steps? Why do we just think about doing what we love, but stop short of doing those things? The answer to this is I guess the way we are brought up. I think we all are so caught up in our day to day activities that we do not look or think beyond a day, a week or at most a year. Our minds are restricted in so many ways. Since birth, we are trained to obey rules – there are rules and regulations within the family, there are Red signals on the roads, there are list of instructions in schools, there is code of conduct in offices!! Phew….so many restrictions! Our vision gets narrowed to only obeying these rules and not doing anything out of the box. We are like horses with the blinders put on. Even when we leave our homes, we end up seeing some sky and mostly the surrounding buildings that block our views.

Limitless Possibilities - What Can I do?

In times like these, I look towards the nature for some inspiration. Whenever I travel to sea shores and beaches, I am amazed at the vastness of the view. Even with binoculars, all I can see is the sea!! There’s water everywhere and the view is breathtaking. The fresh air, the chirping of birds, the sound of waves – the complete feeling refreshes and rejuvenates me. But what I like the most is there is on restriction on my view, there are no boundaries. I can see as far as I want to see. The water has freedom to flow in any direction it wants. The winds are not tied down by any list of instructions. The entire feeling is highly inspiring in that there are limitless possibilities without boundaries. There is freedom to think, to decide and to do. 

And that I think is the reality of life. There are so many things that we can do, if we believe that we can do them. We just have to free our mind from the cob web of treading the same path that is worn out by the steps of every other traveler. Think of things that we love to do and just do them. Keep reinventing. Take up new challenges. 

If you dream, you can.

Once we start we realize that its not that difficult and things that we felt we could never do, are quite possible. It’s like looking in the rear view mirror – it correctly says “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”.

Someone rightly said - "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish".  

End of the World, are we there yet?

 

As 2010 comes to an end, I cannot ignore the overload of scam related news that poured throughout the year. Many businessmen I admired, many businesses I used to follow, many sports/events that I liked watching were all mired in controversies. And at the bottom of all this was greed and dishonesty.

Most of this year went by reading one story after another about corruption scandals, unethical ways adopted by people to do business and shameful exposure of public servants/celebrities. The dearth of good, comforting news was unnerving. Is it really so bad? Where did all the good people go? What happened to all the values and ethics we once took pride in? I was disappointed, if not disheartened, by all this. And I am sure many others like me must be feeling the same. That’s why, this blog post.

Some time back, I went to my home town Satara - a place, still glowing in the cushion of greenery, a place where I spent early years of my life learning about all the great things and amazing people that exist in this world.

One evening, I was sitting along with my mom-dad in the porch of our house having nice hot tea. We had already discussed the scandals and all that is going wrong around the world. Their feeling was no different than mine. Suddenly I heard someone knocking the gate of our home. I went near by to see who it was. I saw couple of kids knocking the gate. The older one must be 10-odd years old and the younger one must be 5-ish. The older kid was holding the hand of the younger one. I guessed that they must be brothers. They were shivering due to the cool breeze. From the looks I realized that they were quite poor - disheveled uniforms, torn school bags and no footwear. Definitely kids from a very poor background. The younger one had just stopped crying I guess. He had moist but very lively eyes. The older kid was holding his brother close. His eyes and expressions showed all the love he had for his brother. I was instantly reminded of my own older brother and the days when he used to take me to school "double seat" on his bicycle. I skipped a heart beat.

However, my very next reaction was to drive them away. I have seen so many of those nagging beggars in Pune and I did not want to see them near our home. However, the older kid soon started speaking. He said it was first day of their school after Diwali vacations. His mother had given him Rs.10 (< 25 cents) to buy a new notebook for his younger brother. But he had lost Rs.2 and couldn't buy the notebook. I realized why the younger one must be crying. He explained that the school teacher had scolded his brother for not bringing a notebook to school. Also his mother would scold him for loosing the money. I saw honesty in his eyes and innocence in his expressions. Some times life is so cruel. We waste 1000s of paper napkins and printer papers in office and here these guys did not have enough money to buy even a Rs. 10 notebook.  

I immediately went inside and brought back Rs.10. I gave him the money, but to my surprise, he did not accept it. He said he needed only Rs.2! I was in a way happy with my decision to wait and hear them instead of driving them away. I handed over Rs.2 to the kid. A glow appeared on the face older brother and younger one's face was lit with a big smile. Soon they were gone. I felt very good, not only because I helped the kids but also because of the humbleness I saw in them.

The next day I was busy meeting friends and family. There was a function in the family. There was fun and frolic every where. We had a great time together and around evening I was back at home. It was colder than the previous evening. I made some tea for myself and was sitting in the porch enjoying the combination of hot tea and cool breeze. I heard someone knocking on the front gate. I checked and it was the same kids again. Soon my “Pune” mind thought that the guys were back to ask for more money. I thought they had successfully fooled me the previous day by telling a sorry tale. My thoughts moved between anger and disappointment. Anger, because I thought the kids were lying and again going to ask for money. And disappointment, because I thought they were perfectly following the footsteps of corrupt politicians and dishonest businessmen.

What happened next was straight from morals and values text books. The older kid gave me back the Rs. 2 that I had given him on previous day. He said, he had narrated the day’s incidents to his mother. She had scolded him, not for losing money, but for taking money from strangers. He said, she bought a Rs. 8 note book for his brother and asked him to return the money. The kid apologized for what he had done and said that he and his brother were ready for any punishment. I froze. No words. No thoughts. Tears almost rolled down my eyes. I was so wrong about the kids. I was so very wrong that there are no values or ethics left in this world. I took the money back from the kids, patted them on the back and handed them couple of candies I had.

It took me some time to recover from the shock. And the incident still lingers in my mind. Post that incident; I analyzed the qualities the kids had demonstrated.

1.    He told the genuine reason why he wanted money. Honesty.

2.    He did not ask for more money than he needed. No greed.

3.    He wanted help not for himself but for his brother. Selflessness.

4.    He told the truth to his mother. Courage.

5.    He returned my money immediately. Promptness.

6.    He accepted his mistake and was ready to face any punishment. Integrity.

I guess we all learn these qualities from our teachers, friends or family. If only with the growing years, we all (politicians, businessmen or common people) could stop these qualities from eroding. The incident gave me some assurance that not everything in this world is wrong. There are still good people and good things being taught. There are things happening in the world which are challenging the virtue that we ever knew. But it’s not really the end of the world.

As said in some movie, it’s only at the cusp of extinction that a civilization realizes its follies and begins a long journey back to sanity. I think we are not there yet.

Me, Nolan, Anyone?

Reality - Part 1:

I and my wife just came back after watching a late night movie. The movie was awesome. I was totally bowled over by the concept, the presentation and the completely believable acting. What a movie.

On our way home, we ate lots of stuff - snacks (Pav Bhaji, Fried Rice, noodles, chicken lollypop) and cold coffee. We were constantly discussing the different scenes from the movie. Being a movie buff, I could hardly get the movie out of my mind. I am not sure how much we ate and drank.

Scene 1 - Part 1:

Cut to my travel in a bus. I was in a Volvo travelling. It was cold and peaceful. Thank god they were not playing any movie.

I was trying to sleep but was not able to. There was something wrong with my stomach. There was one guy sleeping beside me. He was feeling very cold I guess. I saw him for a moment, we smiled and he rolled the blanket over his head. I couldn't see his face after that. Finally I managed to sleep.

Scene 2:

I was running on a road along with another guy. It’s somewhere in Pune, but not sure where. We were running towards something. I had an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Soon I realized that I had to do it, you know (!!). I knew there were few moments left and I had to find a toilet. The guy who was running along with me then shouted "Turn left from here. We will be there in 5 minutes". I thought those 5 minutes will be the longest 5 minutes of my life.

Just when we turned left, a car came in from the wrong side of the road. We were running so fast that we couldn't stop and I hit the car. It happened so fast that I couldn't stop myself. Suddenly my eyes opened.

Scene 1 - Part 2:

Suddenly my eyes opened. The Volvo had hit the brakes hard to avoid something I guess. Talk of a kick. The growling in my stomach had grown louder. It was getting uncomfortable now.

The guy beside me was awake too. But wait a minute. This was the same guy running with me on the road. What is he doing here? I had questions in my mind. But, before I could say anything, he said "Abhishek, I am here to help you. We will soon reach our destination. All you have to do is hold on for a few moments".

Scene 1 - Part 3:

Soon we were at our destination. I was getting down from the bus quickly. I did not wait for the bus to reach the stop. We were waiting at a signal. But I had to get down. I had to run home quickly. The other guy got down too. We crossed the road and were standing in the middle of the road over the divider. There were vehicles driving by fast on both sides of the road.

While we were waiting, I asked the guy "Who are you man? And why did you say there you are here to help me?” In a cold voice he replied "I know you are in trouble ;) and you want to do it. I stopped the Volvo for you in the middle of the road so that you can get down and run home". I was surprised. How did he know all this? And what was he doing in my dream? Just before crossing the road, he said "Try to remember how you got into this bus? And watch out for that car". What car?

And I hit a car coming from the opposite direction. Talk of another kick.

Reality - Part 2:

I fell off my bed. Before realizing anything else, I ran for the toilet.

Back after 10 minutes, I was relieved. I recalled that since we had eaten so many things after the movie, my stomach had started giving troubles.

And you guessed it right; we had watched Christopher Nolan's “Inception” starring Leonardo DiCaprio that night :)

On A Rainy Afternoon...

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On a rainy afternoon, I found myself watching the streets of Mumbai filled with water. There was water everywhere. All the news channels were reporting the flood situation in Mumbai. It had rained 600mm in Mumbai that day.

I started wondering how much really is 600mm of rain?? I knew for sure that this kind of rain in a day would make life miserable in any part of the world. But sitting in my cozy apartment in Pune, I found it hard to imagine how people would handle so much rain.

As I kept watching TV, more and more bad news kept 'pouring' in. Numerous people were feared killed due to the flood and a lot of them were missing. There were serpentine queues of people walking in the middle of the road holding hands, since someone might slip into the man holes any time. Vehicles were literally floating around on the streets. Some people had climbed on the top of these vehicles to avoid drowning in the rain water.

My thoughts were disturbed when my cell phone started ringing. It was one of my friends asking whether I was safe. I assured him that everything was fine. But what was the problem in Pune? Then I looked out of the window and noticed that it was raining quite heavily outside.

I usually like watching rain. Its time have a nice ginger tea and have pakoras. The pouring rain enticed me to make pakoras. I was almost through with it, when the rains became heavier. Each rain drop was like a bullet falling from the sky on ground. I could see rain drops bouncing off the car shade below. The noise was growing louder by the minute.

Within half an hour it was raining so heavily on the streets of Pune that I felt god had left open a huge tap in the sky with full force. I gave upon the thought of having pakoras and was glued to the TV. I tried calling home, but the cell phone network was down too. While sipping my ginger tea the feeling of panic started gripping me.

BANG!!! There was a huge noise. And the electricity went off. Some transformer must have tripped, I thought. It was dark, but not quiet. The rain was quite scary. I lit up a candle and switched on the radio to get any latest news about the situation. I thought of stepping out and going to some friends' place. But quickly decided against doing so.

The rains grew stronger. Now almost sounding like a monster. I knew it, I could feel it. It was raining too much. The news on radio made me gasp for breath - the largest dam near the city had caved in and the lady on the radio warned that soon the city could be flooded with water.

Since I lived on the second floor, I thought I would be safe for some days. But what about food? What about my office? Panic gripped me totally. I was sweating heavily. And then, the last candle in home extinguished. Now I could only hear the tremendous rainfall.

What will I do, where should I go? Before I could think any more, I heard people screaming. I started hearing unusual sounds. Sound of water gushing through the lanes carrying and hitting anything that came in its way. It was all over I thought. The water entered our society. The screams grew louder. The water level was continuously rising.

I turned the radio louder in desperation to find out if any help was coming by. The lady announced that as soon as the help is near your home, they would blow an alarm. I was desperately looking forward to the alarm. There were only few minutes left now. I could see water almost at the level of first floor. Oh god, what should I do. I was completely drenched in sweat now. I could hardly move. The water rose very fast and in seconds it would hit my door and enter the apartment.

But then, as a god sent gift, I could hear the alarm. Yes, help was close by. I could still survive to see another day. The alarm grew louder and louder....

.....But wait a minute....why on earth does the alarm sound like my cell phone ring tone?? The alarm or the ring tone, whatever, grew louder. And then I opened my eyes.

It was actually my cell phone that was ringing. I got up from my ill-timed afternoon nap on the drawing room sofa. I answered the phone and instantly came back to reality after hearing a call center girl trying to sell me a credit card or personal loan. For the first time in my life I was grateful to these guys for calling me :)

As I became aware of the real world around me, I noticed that it was bright and clear outside in Pune. The rains in Mumbai had stopped too. I decided to go ahead with my plans to make pakoras.

Since then I always keep an umbrella handy. Just beside my bed :D

My Israeli Sojourn

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Written @ Ben Gurion Airport – Visitors’ Lounge – Tel Aviv, Israel

January 21, 2009. 5pm

Someone has said it rightly - "you have to see it to believe it". I had an example of this on my trip to Israel. I came across something, which I would have never believed, if I trusted what I had been watching on TV all my life.

On a cold, but sunny day in first week of January, I was informed by my Project Manager, that I have to travel to Israel for some workshops with the client. Being a Business Analyst I always look forward to such meetings. My first feeling was of excitement. But Israel!!!

As the idea sank in, my initial feeling of excitement was replaced with doubt and fear (psst. dont tell anyone). I was a bit scared with the thought of traveling to a country which was at war. I could imagine damaged houses, soldiers with AK-47s on the roads, fire and fumes bellowing out of buildings. All the Aaj Tak kind of “breaking news” flashed in front of my eyes.

The ongoing war was just one thing on my mind. The other thought bothering me was the kind of people I would come across. Will they be hostile, fundamentalists? Do they know English? Do they indulge in any after-office partying? With the World War II history behind them, what must be their feelings about people from other countries? Will I be able to extract “requirements” out of them? Believe me, I was not even sure whether I should go or not.

To add to the above apprehension, I came across an interesting list of Do’s and Don’ts:

• DON’T ask for milk in coffee on Thursday
• DON’T go outside the hotel alone
• DON'T discuss the Arab-Israeli situation
• DON'T bring up the Holocaust
• DON’T go near the Israel borders

Before I could give any second thoughts, I was on the flight to Tel Aviv. Just before landing in Israel, in a height of stupidity, I found myself looking out of the airplane window to see if there are any Hamas rockets flying below the plane!!!

After quite professional & swift customs and security check-up, I was out of the huge airport. The entire perception (or I must say prejudice) was shattered when I came out of the airport. I was awestruck. Was I really in Tel Aviv or in Toronto? The Arabic signs on road side reminded me that I was in fact in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Well-tarred six-lane roads, various luxury cars and huge glass covered skyscrapers welcomed me towards the city. (I was also traveling in a Mercedes C Class taxi). I went direct to the client office for the workshops. The client premises were well designed red colored buildings with a 10 feet fountain at the entrance. The interior of the offices was better than many MNC offices I have seen. The conference room had all modern amenities and equipments.

I was given a warm welcome by a senior manager. I quickly realized that the guys were very professional and knowledgeable. We developed a good rapport with them immediately. There was just one technical guy who knew their entire system end-to-end (Billing-CRM, OSS and Network elements). No wonder Israelis are known as some of the most intelligent guys under the sun.

Over the weekend (which is Friday and Saturday in Israel) we went for a party. We went to a restaurant serving continental food. I was impressed to hear their knowledge of different items on the menu and their taste for great food and wine. Over the dinner we discussed their favorite hang-out places, hobbies and other interests. The guys turned to be quite “cool”.

After they broached the topic, we discussed their feelings about the Holocaust. (I was surprised to hear that some of them even had German friends). We even discussed what is driving the Arab-Israel conflict.

The next day we hired a taxi (whose driver’s name was “Israel”) to take us around the city. He took us straight to Jerusalem!! Once we reached there, I realized why the place could be easily termed as the most important place in the history of man kind. Jerusalem has a Church, a Synagogue and a Mosque with a common wall!!! I was awestruck (again!) when I was told that I was standing at a place where Jesus Christ was crucified and whose history goes back to 3 thousand years. And most importantly the buildings were exactly the same as they stand today!!!

On our way back, we came through West Bank – with a 12 feet wall on the left of the road – the border between Israel and Palestine.

During my 7 day stay in Israel, each and every perception I had about the country was thrashed to pieces. I realized how Israel has a modern and open minded society, how technologically advanced the country is! I was amazed to see how much development a country of just 7 million people can bring about (India’s population is 1100 million). I was impressed by the manners and etiquettes that are built into each and every individual. I realized how much catching-up we have to do with this country.

The lesson I learnt from the trip was that, in today’s world, we should not carry any mental baggage or prejudice. We should respect different cultures and societies. Only an open mind can appreciate and understand their qualities and build good vibes with people from different backgrounds and geographies.

And most importantly don’t always believe what we see on TV.

Choice - The ultimate fate decider

Choice - one of the most important things in life. Just how many things are decided by the choices that we make? Lets leave the first 12-15 years, but after that, there are always those critical moments when we have to make decisions that may have long lasting or sometimes ever lasting effects on our life.

I made a decision to not to pursue biology after 10th, but I had never knew what impact it will have on my life. I just followed the tradition in my family. Similarly, I gave up on a chance to join architecture degree inspite of good marks!!!

My point is, just how does one make a choice and not rue it later, when we have so little insight into what the implications of our choice will be. Okay, one might say that such authority to choose the right direction or right job can come from experience, but what about certain other things in life, of which we have little experience.

Recently, I was traveling outside India (to the west) for the first time. I had read a lot about the kind of people (especially NRIs) i might meet and talk to. But, what perception I had in my mind about the society here (in general) and what i experienced (in person) was quite different. Now, how does one choose, how to react when such people (about whom we have some prejudice) do not offer to help, or friendship OR when they offer help or friendship? Based on realms of stuff that we have read or based on the personal experience?

The choice that one would make in such situation will again have lasting effects. Okay, one might again say, that this types of choices too can be arrived at with experience. Which brings me to the final question.........how does one choose whom to love and whom to worship?

Here, atleast in India, experience cannot be the correct input to make the choice. Most of our actions, beliefs and perceptions are based on what has been told to us. Which such background, what a person remembers is what went wrong and which things did not work out. Which make him decide - what not to do in life. But "what not to do" is not the only thing that should affect our choices!!!

I believe, every person inherently has a level of conviction in everything that he believes, does or does not do. That conviction may evolve over a period of time and finally help a person make decisions that he will not rue.

The most important point is that from early stages of life, we should not try to be idealistic (good boys, school/college rankers, etc), but one must open up to all the possibilities in world. Shed the inhibitions. Appreciate the diversity that rules our surrounding, assimilate the events happening around us. And this I believe will open the flood gates to understand not only what one should not do, but also what one can and should do in life.

Armed with this knowledge, an individual will be able to make choices that will be truly his, and not dictated only by what he has been shown, told or what he has heard.

Keep your eyes, mind and heart open.....let the beauty of nature, the essence of diversity flow into our soul and the natural course of time make up your mind - what you want in life, what you want to do, what you don't want to do. Make the correct choices and live happily ever after.......