Honesty

Amidst all these scams in the country, I read a comment in a forum today that 5% of the population are corrupt, 5% are honest and 90% do not actually get a chance for corruption.

Well... and 41.63% of all statistics are just made up! Jokes apart, though I am not sure where from these numbers are coming, I do feel that at large, this is kinda true. But the question is if that 90% is also given a chance, will they take the bait?

Another question: does pocketing a few crores only qualify as corruption? What about jumping a traffic light or forging few bills to claim tax exemption or shelling out a few hundred bucks to that clerk to speed up that application of yours... list goes on.

Honesty is not doing the right thing because I know somebody will punish if I don't. That is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Honesty is doing the right thing even if I know nobody is watching - do the right thing for the right reasons.

I wonder what percentage of population will fall into this class?

Moments of 'Happyness'

“Happiness is there if we want it to be. It’s wrapped in beauty and hidden away from the seconds of our lives. If we don’t stop for a moment we might miss it.”
– from the movie Cashback.

Sometimes, little things in life can give us so much joy. I believe all of us keep having these small reasons to smile. But many a times we tend to overlook it.

It’s a small incident that happened few days back. I was coming back from office in the evening on my bike. I hadn’t gone much far when I saw this lady who was trying to cross the street with a kid. The rush hour traffic of the evening of a weekday was posing a serious challenge for her. I slowed down my bike and eventually stopped near them and let them cross – I usually do it if I see a kid or a lady or some old guy trying to cross a street. May be she didn’t expect that and gave me smile and crossed the road with the kid.

It was like the sunshine coming through clouds after the rains - the kind of a smile which can make your day; make you forget a bad day at work! Sometimes in life we are so deeply engaged in pursuit of big moments of happiness that we miss out on the small ones.

Let’s stop for a moment, take a breath and look out for these small moments of ’happyness’!

Ride Responsibly

Saw a post in a community today about someone loosing a friend in a bike race. A thought came to mind, is it all worth it?
I like to ride... go on long rides. I also ride fast at times but always obey traffic rules. life is much more precious than hitting some magic numbers so that you can brag about it.
There are a class of so called 'racer's who race in peak city traffic. What they don't understand that they are sharing public street and not only risking their lives but also putting other's lives in jeopardy.
I don't understand whats the harm in following lane rules or stopping at a red light for few more seconds. Just because of few, the whole biker community gets bad name.

Are You Gonna Finish Strong?

Actually, I am not much into reading motivational stuff or listening to such speeches. I feel, those ‘motivational gurus’ tells pretty much the same things you already know, albeit in sophisticated way!
And then, the other day, someone shared this video of a guy who has no arms or legs but has come to terms with his lot in life and he delivers an inspirational speech to these school kids that they will probably never forget. His name is Nick Vujicic. I shouldn’t talk much about it, the video speaks for itself!



Watch it and I bet you'll stop asking God “why me…?”! So, are you gonna finish strong?!

To know more about Nick:
Wikipedia
Life Without Limbs Organization

Four stages of unemployment!

I needed a break from my usual kind of writings! And considering the current global economic scenario and the placement season at my institute we really need this! So here it is, four stages of unemployment:

Denial - what?? That can't be! something must be wrong in the shortlist!!
Anger - I don't accept this. I will go talk to the HR!
Acceptance - They must have got better people. I need to improve...
Enlightenment - Career is a 20th century invention. I don't need one!

Tough times ahead, but keep smiling! ;)

How far will you run?

News Flash:

“The Assam Tribune, Guwahati, Nov 1 – Even after more than 48 hours have passed since a series of blasts rocked the State on Thursday, Assam Police continues to be clueless about the identity of the organization behind the terror strikes, which claimed 81 lives, besides leaving over 200 injured.”

A post in a community on social networking site ‘Orkut’:

“SILCHAR ---safest place in the assam –to live

Frn I was their in silchar …i found that silchar was most peaceful and safest among the ane of assam,s district….i think silchar is growing economic capital of assam……because most of trading for Mizoram and Tripura is done from silchar….also silchar is producing some local products whish are very famous in these two neighbouring state…….ne way silchar is the best place in assam.to live happily yet there are lack of some basic facilities….. ”

I am posting the above comment unedited and I won’t comment on the English!

BUT God knows what was in his mind while writing that post. It seemed to me like some kind of 'Incredible India' promotional campaign!

I don't have anything against any place. I just want to say something - If you see smoke all around with some 300 odd people lying midst of the street, crying, looking for their loved ones among the pool of blood and all you can say is you would rather stay away from such places, then go ahead - be happy in your own selfish little existence till someday someone will blow up your ass (sorry for the slang)!

It’s not about where you are, not about how far u can stay away from the ambush, not about just worrying for your loved ones. Because someday, the same thing can happen to us that has happened to someone else today. Assam had never seen hatred in such a scale but that's what has happened now. Now it’s about everyone rising and fighting against it.

Rat Race

Are we all in a rat race? We are all running - running to achieve something, running to reach for our dreams, running get what we want. But do we know what we want in life? Some of us do, some don’t. Those who don’t are also running just keep the pace with the others.
We all like winners, we all want to be one of them. Nobody likes a looser. Now some believe winning is not important, what is important is have you tried or not. This line is from ‘Little Miss Sunshine’:
“A looser is someone who is so afraid of not winning that they don’t even try.”
How far is that true? If winning is not important then why do they keep scores??! The fact is that when the kid comes back from school and says: “See dad, I got 95”, our first question would be, where did those 5 marks go? We may not like it but we are putting the burden our unfulfilled aspirations on the shoulder of our children.
Most of us spend most of our lives in finding out what we want from life. The sooner we find it, the better. But very few are so lucky. Even if we get what we want, reach where we want to arrive, the question is what after that? The irony of life is, when we have some wants we usually don’t have the means to fulfill them. By the time we earn those means, our priorities change - we want something else.
If we don't have time to enjoy what we have achieved, what is the point in achieving? Today we have cell phones, but don’t have time to talk to our dear ones. We are getting so used to our AC cars that we have forgot how does it feel to get wet in the season’s first rain. While that coffee machine keeps us going during long working hours, we find it hard to recall the taste of tea at the roadside stall with friends. Is it time to stop for a moment, wait and think, think what we have lost in life while we were running in pursuit of our wants?
We are all running. Because nobody wants to be left behind. Because nobody likes a looser. Because we know:
"The winner takes it all
The loser standing small
Beside the victory
That's her destiny"