Happiness?

Context: Debate with a friend on what happiness really is.

Cherry:

Happiness - what is it?
Some days, you're just low, how do you explain that? Or frustrated? Sure, happiness is in your hands, but don't the same things that make you happy sometimes also frustrate you at other times? Aren't there some things in your life that you wish were different? Some changes that you want to bring about? So when you answer 'Yes, I'm happy', isn't it because you choose to look at the things that make you happy and ignore other slight blemishes, if any? If you are happy with some of the BIG things in life that matter most to you, well, then, that's all you're going to look at :)

Me:

So one day I called my father and said, "Father! I'm completely devoid of motivation right now. I don't want to work! Do something. Give motivational speech!" :)

And so Daddy dearest says; "I don't know about motivational speech, but I'll tell you something I've learnt from my X years of work experience." We stopped to gawk and gasp at how many years of work experience he had had. Then he said, "No matter what it is you do as your work, you're compromising something. Either you don't love your work, but you're happy with all the things that doing "that work" allows you to do, or you love your work and you don't lead a luxurious life. Very few people can strike a pot of gold and get both. The thing is though, there are times that, with the very same thing, you will get frustrated, whatever the case be. You're bored with it, you find it monotonous, you find it irritating at one point, and yet at another point, you are thankful to have it. So, the best way to motivate yourself may be to look at all the good things you're getting out of your job. You thoroughly enjoy the trips that you're able to afford thanks to this job, right? So, it's giving you something you love. Now, choose whether this motivates you enough to work or not."

Magic words.

Putting that in theory, since happiness is a dynamic emotion, the same things can make you happy at one point and at other points, make you unhappy. That's either because you compare and measure the thing that made you happy to different things at different points or you look at it differently as you gain a different perspective each day. (Or you're just really moody :P).

Also, the grass is always greener on the other side. ALWAYS. Which is the biggest reason for unhappiness. And sure, you may wish that some things were different. But it also holds true that people fight for and get what they want if they want it badly enough - they go make the change they'd been wishing for. If you haven't fought to get it, then you're stuck looking at greener pastures. Deal with that, 'cause it's the choice you made. And well, the ability to compare really stabs happiness in the back sometimes, doesn't it? :)

Haven't had such random, yet exhilarating discussions in a while, so thought this deserves to be here!

That Control Plus F !

Irrelevant fact: I've made it a mission to read the newspaper everyday; even though my powers of retention may be questionable of late, so if you quiz me on the news, I'll draw a blank. I get a (read: zillion) free newspaper every morning at work, and yet I pay a newspaper man to fling a rolled up newspaper into my balcony every morning. Why? So that I feel guilty enough about having spent the money to buy it, and READ.

What this post is about:

And so it happened that when I was reading the newspaper on my way to work one fine day, an article caught my attention. Something I made a mental note to do, so the power of retention issue wasn't (as much of) a problem here. I put the paper away and got on with my daily work.

Then, I wanted to look for that article to make sure I remembered the date and time.

Scan, scan, scan.

Scan, scan, scan some more.

DAMN, I WISH I HAD CTRL+F !

After much hunting, I finally found what I was looking for.


But tell me this - has that happened to you? When you read off a paper, books, and/or other hard copies? Particularly when your job involves one little click of the mouse or buzz of fingers over the keyboard and voila, there's the answer floating right in front of your eyes?! Just like magic. You want to be computer about everything you do. That's 'cause life's easy on the computer! Swell.

Of late, I've begun to feel like my brain has stopped functioning properly. (Remember my earlier mention of powers of retention?). Why do you think that is? Simply because my brain doesn't really have to make the effort. At all. I could relate to this Abtruse Goose comic - very strongly. Machines and devices get faster, we get slower. I think of the Terminator movie series. (One of the things I still remember because it's long lodged in my long term memory). And then of predictions of the world ending on 2012.

Maybe it's time to do something when you get to the point where you feel like you need THAT CONTROL PLUS F !

Only You.

Only you

Can catch my eye in a crowd
Holding me captive for those seconds

Say you have two left feet
So you can watch me dance

Are up for a holiday no matter when
And wake me up to watch the sunrise

Hold my hand to cross the road
Or just like that

Can look at me smiling
And know I'm troubled

Listen to my rants and complaints
Then tell me the funniest thing

Make me feel like there's so much I can do
But also that there's so much I don't know

See my talent, see yours
And blend it together in fun

Only you.

Sun-dried towel.

Nothing like a sun-dried towel
Crisp from soaking up the sun
Dry as baked earth
Smelling of the breeze
That ruffled it as it went past.

O sun-dried towel
As you touch my skin
And soak away the stress
In tired droplets of water
I smile.

I smile, as the roughness
Feels warm against my skin
Soft and exfoliant
Giving me fresh life
Nothing like a sun-dried towel.

Of New Year Resolutions.

Last year, after having spent a horrendous amount of time (3 years!!!) away from reading, or reading a maximum of a book a year, or even half a book a year, I decided at the start of 2011 that I would read, read, read this year. I managed to achieve that, albeit because I was caught off guard and thrown into a situation that I didn't anticipate. Still, it took conscious effort with all the traveling and work and other crazy events of the year. The books I read this year after zero reading in three years:

- To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
- Lord of the Flies, William Goldberg
- White Fang, Jack London
- Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
- Red, Irwin Allan Sealy
- Immortals of Meluha, Amish
- The secret of the Nagas, Amish
- DORK: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Verghese, Sidin Vadukut
- Cloud 9 Minus One, S.P. Kumar
- Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
- A Passage to India, E. M. Forster
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-four Stories, Haruki Murakami

Half read:

- Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

Currently reading:

- On the Road, Jack Kerouac

That's approximately a book a month! Yay! :) I now have a bunch of books lined up for some good alone-time and I like the feeling of being back to reading so much, that I'm going to make it a habit.

I want to keep this up along with making 2012 the year of being the "Exercise Addict" once again. I suppose new year resolutions can work. :)

*The Dirty Picture* and the message I see

Many people I spoke to didn't like this film because of the layers of fat displayed by Vidya Balan.

"If you're on screen, you better have a perfect body!"

...was the common contention.

Apart from the fact that Vidya Balan was playing the role of a "fat South Indian (stereotype) heroine" perfectly, it surely took a lot of courage to show that much flab when the world balks and gawks at flab as though all people around are size zero. I, personally, am glad that for whatever it's worth, this movie has broken away from the stereotype in many ways. Particularly when the market that the film is catering to is the regular (and may I add, massive!) adult Bollywood audience, I'd say she has shown more guts than flab.

After all, isn't beauty in the eyes of the beholder? And, this perception changes with time too (remember voluptuous meant beautiful in the Victorian era?). I'd have been outcast as the ugliest thing alive if I'd been born then. :D I hope that with this movie begins a new generation of film that allows people to develop the sense to accept themselves the way they are and be comfortable in their own skin.

At the end of the day, it shouldn't matter if you're fat or thin, dark or fair, short or tall, as long as you are comfortable with yourself and you dress right - that is, pick colours and cuts to suit your body type.

Be comfortable!

I'm back.

Hi!

How are you doing today? I just wanted to let you know, I'm back. Back, stuck, getting unstuck, planning to get stuck. And "stuck" here doesn't always hold a negative connotation.

You know?

Haha, well I don't. But I'm waiting to find out!

P.S. - It has been more books, more inspiration and a little bit of looking from above. Cool will return. :)