Mind the Gap – Dear Zindgi, Parents, and Elephant in the Room!

Exemplary: Deserving imitation because of excellence … This is for Dear Zindgi!

Kaira & Dr. Jehangir Khan has started a Thread to address a “Problem” (Elephant in the Room) that needs to be addressed by Parents for betterment of their Family. According to Confucius, Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. We often think that to achieve something or to get someone we need to go through lot of pain. We also feel that it has to be a difficult path and that’s the only way to get what we want.

But the question is, whether we are ready to face those difficulties? If not then why to complicate things? Why can’t we choose easier path and keep our mind peaceful?

Daily Prompt: Mentor Me – Vinay Sir

Daily Prompt: Mentor Me– Have you ever had a mentor? What was the greatest lesson you learned from him or her?

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Vinay Sir left a great impact on my life and I was never the same. He stands out when I need to owe my life to someone who has inspired me for thousands of reasons.

As Nicholas Sparks quoted, “They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don’t know it”… I didn’t know when I started to learn things from him. It was a crisis time in my life. Personally, I was going through the biggest self-created trauma of my life… I was down and out; I used to lose my mental balance more often than not; my focus was certainly not on my Professional life and he embraced me in his aura. His persona has such a charismatic effect that I could not only come out from the trauma but improved as a professional. My programming became better and my vision changed. He not only taught me how to look at things, but inspired me to live a meaningful life.

Tears always come out from my eyes when I think about the things he has done for me. None, I repeat…None could have done it for anyone what he did for me. There were times when I couldn’t handle my emotions; I used to throw my mind’s garbage in front of him as if he was my father and every time he saved me from the SELF-DESTRUCTION. I could have done anything at that point of time but he was there to stand by me and he saved my life.

I haven’t forgotten what he said once… “Keep company of the things which are not alive…like Books, Games and other interest because living things may change after changed priorities”…and this sentence has been extremely influential after that day. I enjoy myself even when I am alone and this was unthinkable before three four years. I wanted to run away from my problems and even from my life and I stopped him indirectly number of times but still he inspired me…but “You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.” – J.D. Salinger

There was something in his way of mentoring and later I realized that it was his patience to deal with the people whom you are mentoring. He never ever blamed us or shouted on us for our blunders; and let me be honest…It is not the easiest of things to do when you are leading a team. He took care of us as children and he wanted us to grow. His affection and love for us was more hidden considering the fact that he never expresses things; but when you have very good relation with someone then you tend to pick up things which show other person’s affection for us.

When I think about my life in Indore for three years he stands out. He knows how I think and he can narrate what exactly I will do at specific places in Indore. It was the worst time of my life between 2007 to 2010 but as it is said, “Time is a great teacher”… Vinay Sir was the better teacher than time.

When you study great teachers… you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style… I observed a lot on how he works and understood what dedication is!

Fortunately, He is always with me and He always inspires me!

 

Weekly Writing Challenge: Characters – Nalinee as Friend, Sister and Philosopher

This week’s writing challenge: Tell us about a character in your life. It could be your best friend, your partner, your child, or even your third grade teacher. With as much detail as possible, make this person real for us.

Wait is over! Till now I have acknowledged many people in my life for their contributions and sometimes I have regretted for giving too much importance to them after knowing about their true colors (Vivid Colors); sometimes, I know exactly why some people are being nice but in real they are not…still I give benefit of doubt and don’t react on their behavior and show gratitude to them because I have seen nice people and so I want to be nice to people.

I am about write about one character who is having a great impact on my life since we met in 2003. It is almost 10 years and that girl is still special. She is Nalinee; we share lots of relations…

1. Teacher-Student (She was my student)
2. Friend
3. Brother-Sister
4. Friend-Philosopher

I have never seen a girl like her in my 30 years of life (Full Stop). It doesn’t mean I disrespect other girls whom I know; but if I try and make a comparison with my limited wisdom then she will have the most check-boxes clicked in front of her name. (Having said that, I know I have lots of faults in my own self but when I give, I accept as I am no SAINT and that is why I am entitled to my opinions for others based on my own experiences.)

“Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening.” ― Greta Garbo

Her smile is still refreshing and she was the boss in her society; all used to respect her and she used to teach kids for free.

She was a traditional student who always gives respect to all teachers no matter what the age. Normally teachers have a soft corner for the brightest student in the class and she was no different. She was hardworking and sincere and that’s why she gained my respect from the very first day. She can laugh even in the toughest situation. She is a very honest girl and her character is flawless.  I have never seen a girl going through so much and still have a smile on her face. She has suffered a lot but whenever we used to talk on mobile, she never uttered a word. I could understand from her voice but still not a word. I had to call her mother to ask what has happened and it used to kill me after knowing the situation. That is the resolve of her which allows her to stand even in worst storms of life. Nalinee has immense proud and respect for her own self; she is a girl with integrity and ethics and so we used to fight lot many times because my ethics and integrity was/is not well built as hers.

As Anne Frank says in The Diary of a Young Girl, “A quiet conscience makes one strong!”

We share a relation of brother and sister from early days and she knew almost all things I had faced. She is more like a Philosopher-Friend-Sister to me. I remember when I failed in the DAIICT interview. I couldn’t go home…I was so devastated; I worked very hard for whole year with dedication; it was a one year gap and people were raising eyebrows; I had arguments with my parents also and thus I had no choice to go other than her home; I couldn’t control when I reached at her home and cried like a small baby whose toy has been stolen. She took me to nearest garden and gave me some pearls of wisdom and within no time I was ok. That’s called relation; I have so much of FAKE relations till today and I maintain them just to be nice. Then it was her marriage and we all were so happy; I couldn’t understand what to do when she was leaving…It was a temple in the middle of Sector 12 where we were standing; she was about to leave us after taking blessing from God and I was standing near that temple; she came near me and touched my feet and all hell broke loose…I lost my control and was bit embarrassed as well since she is older than me and still she touched my feet (Teacher-Student relation); we all cried but we knew that she had to go.

Even after the marriage, she remains in touch; she is different from other girls… personally I believe ALL girls are extremely self centered and liars; and I don’t trust any girl for that; they change their priority as if it’s a season in the year (I respect girls but I am entitled to my opinion based on my own experience). She was different in the sense that she still contacts all of us having all responsibility of life, a great kid, and not so good health. In extremely traditional and restricted environment she has managed to keep contact with each one of us and that is why when some girl comes to me and tries to give excuse based on her priority and responsibility…inside in my heart I want to slap that girl for lying.

That is why Nalinee is so special and different from all girls. In one of her marriage pics, she looks like Madhubala, the famous actress in Indian Cinema and we all family members (Her family is My Familyas well) are proud of our Madhubala.

Thanks for being there Nalinee! You always guide me when I need the most and that’s why you are not like rest!

Weekly Writing Challenge: Characters

Daily Prompt: All About Me

According to Dictionary meaning,

• Vivid – Perceived or felt with the freshness of immediate experience; remaining distinct in the mind
• Vision – The manner in which one sees or conceives of something.

 “If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse… but surely you will see the wildness!” ― Pablo Picasso

When I started this blog, basic idea was to create a blog for my photography. I purchased a new camera and I was extremely excited about that. I created a blog with the name “My.Vivid.Pictures”; after sometime, I came to know about http://dailypost.wordpress.com and I realized that the area of reach my blog name conveys is very limited.

I have been over emotional from years and that has led to various kind of thought process. I have my opinion on almost everything; having said that, I am always open to improve my though process and hence I am open minded also and can take the criticism.

I mused over the scenario and then realized that the current blog name is not serving the purpose and considering the interesting subjects Daily Post provides, I couldn’t resist and decided to change the name of my blog. I wanted to have a name which can be inclusive of all things in my world and in rest o the world, I wanted to convey in straight forward manner that whatever I write or click, is from my own vision and the way I see it or the way I interpret it. Hence I picked the word “Vision”. My opinions and my way of interpretations are distinct in my mind at least and it comes from immediate experience hence I picked the word “Vivid”…

That’s the story behind myvividvisions.wordpress.com. Know more About Me.

Daily Prompt: All About Me

 

Daily Prompt: Burning Down the House

Scary, it is very scary to even think what if that would happen?

In hypothetical scenario,

1. My Educational and Professional Certificates: My 80-90% of life has gone into studies and I have earned each certification with extreme hard work; it is more important considering the fact that I am not having the brightest of mind and hence I had to work extremely hard with sigle minded focus and dedication. Those were the days where I enjoyed my life less and gave lot of time to studies because I wanted to be one of the best.
2. USB Hard Disk of 1 TB: For the simple reasons…500 Movies, 9 SitComs (Two and a Half Man, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Fraiser, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Prison Break, and more), and Selected Songs from 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, post 2000s…. Songs are extremely important and they have been selected carefully from all kinds of collections in various categories such as Feelings, Fast Tracks, Heartbeats, Romantic, Instrumental, Audio Tapes, Regional songs… It is just unimaginable what would happen if I will loose them. It is a hard work of more than 20 years.
3. My Camera – Sony HX200v: It has given me a peace within last few months. I have enjoyed my time with my camera. Now I can find different objects and can identify different things in surroundings which was just normal objects before some time. My camera has changed my Vision a bit and it will improve it in a Big way.
4. Laptop: My all work is in my laptop; in addition to that, I have been attached with it since 2009. I am emotionally attached with my laptop considering the fact that it has never left me alone and in fact gave me ways to come out from my miseries at times.
5. Some Hand-made Greeting cards given by Friends and Some Collections: Those are the valuable things; I cherish the emotions attached to those all items and re-live those moments with tears in my eyes. Very Special. With increased maturity and Ego or Self Respect…These cards and collection is my “Go in Crisis” items and I need not to feel dependency on living things for expressing my emotions.

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• Daily Prompt: Burning Down the House

My own Eulogy at the Sunset of my Thought Provoking Creativity

The best time in my life when I will believe that my mind’s creativity is starting to diminish I would like to read out my own eulogy loud enough to remind myself to stretch myself…to keep my creativity alive.

In four words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: “Show must go on.” Spring is never far behind the winter…happiness will be the certain stage after extreme pain. It just reflects sin curve behavior. This is one of the thing for which I will give credit to my own self for understanding even in trying times of my life. I will praise myself for having hope at the time of my life when things where in complete chaos and still I was able to fight it out with hope.

Hope created chaos as well but my faith came to rescue. My faith in my beliefs filled my life with positivity. There was a time when I was bothered by little things. Small things disturbed me; I let down myself by giving importance to others and forgot the fact that to love own self is the biggest achievement and that has to be the base to love others. With experience I became a person who was more than what bothered me.

Throughout the span of my creativity, I was the person with ego to be best but still I was aware that better things and humans exists and I need to learn things to improve. Inferiority complex never destroyed me…in fact it drove me to excellence.

Criticizing my own self for my behavior was my best time pass. I used to analyze how could have I done things differently? What I need to do in future to improve on grey areas.

All in all, I fought a huge battle with my own self to improve; I succeeded at times and I failed at times but I never failed to give efforts. In trying times, you need to TRY! 🙂 I did that. That was me.

 Daily Prompt: Dearly Departed

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Daily Prompt: I Got Skills – Balance between Mind and Heart!

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” All a person needs is the will to cross the bridge where he or she can find efficient and not perfect balance to make certain decisions to be happy in personal or professional life.

There have been times in my life when I wanted to be master of what bothers me and I could not. I simply could not avoid. It was a mental trauma. Relations were hampered, expectations were hardly alive but still it used to kill and my heart over powered my brain more often than not.

I am intelligent enough to realize that my out of control feelings are bothering me but I am not enough mature to control it. Domination of feelings has been a sweet little battle I fight daily. My heart is extremely positive and it is always ready to behave in nicest way it can still my mind turns naughty and then the mother of all battle starts. Lately, from my experiences my mind has started behaving in certain ways, it create more doubt in relations than before and the battle with my inner self is becoming more and more brutal day by day. Even with all this, I have realized a sea change in my mindset from past three years. I wanted to gain perfect balance where my inner peace is not disturbed by the battle of my mind and heart. I started to train my brain and my heart to behave in certain way by talking to my own self. Self-talk, after lot of effort has started to show the effect and from the 0:100, I have been able to maintain the balance between my mind and heart 35:65. I am still training myself to be better than what bothers me. I had a belief when I wanted to keep that balance and truly I believe that… now…more than ever before I have acquired the capacity where I am more than what bothers me and I have been to keep peace with my own self. Important thing is person has to realize that Self love is best Love and then only you can love others.

I must mention here that “101 ways to transform your Life” audio tape has to be given credit for transformation.

I wish I could find a perfect balance (50:50) between my heart and my mind to attain more mental peace. Having said that, I firmly believe there are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the pain away, but I know that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. So with experience I have educated my heart so it can understand that Pain and Joy also balanced out and my heart has understood a fact as a good student.

You may find above things bit uneven but often life is at its best when it has “Efficient” balance and not the “Perfect” balance. 🙂

Daily Prompt: I Got Skills

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sun Beyond Solar Light Pole

George Porter Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1967 said, “I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s energy. If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”  I certainly believe it can be done and the state Gujarat is a role model for it. Gandhinagar, Capital of Gujarat have solar light pole as street lights on roads, in gardens, at traffic signals… 

Behind this solar light pole, the Sun is responsible as it can be seen…It is beyond the solar light pole in photograph as well 🙂

Related Articles:

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond the Flowers!
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond the Drops of Water
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond Window
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue Sky beyond the Beautiful Architecture
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

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Daily Prompt: Polite Company – Never a good idea to discuss religion or politics!

“Anyone who thinks sitting in temple / mosque / church can make you a religious person must also think that sitting on a chair or making absurd statement can make you a politician.”

The problem with debates on politics or religion nowadays is… Expert is available in each person and everyone think they are right. None wants to listen other’s opinion. None wants to give attention to the good aspect. Criticizing is becoming a a fashion and with the social media on its verge, It is very easy to spread opinions which are not constructive.

On Twitter specifically, it has become a fashion to abuse or to use foul language while discussing with unknown person about religion or on political thought process.

It is not only harmful to the society but to the person itself. Hatred is like a fire, if you play with it…you can burn yourself and you won’t be able to help yourselves.

All these things happens because lack of knowledge on political thought process and religion and suddenly we want to prove our knowledge superior even-though it is very limited…

Thus it is always better to not to discuss religion or politics without prior knowledge to anyone and not only to unknown persons.

Daily Prompt: Polite Company

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Daily Post: Helplessness of a Common Citizen of India

Enough is enough.

There has been gender discrimination from years in country on the name religion, superiority, and culture. Women are sexually harassed, molested daily at public places, raped, and murdered in the modern world. Brutality of crime is increasing day by day. Educated and uneducated Men who are jealous of progress of modern women want to prove their superiority with muscle power rather than intellectual power or with knowledge power.

It is not new but now it can’t be behind the curtain. Reason I feel helpless is I wonder what makes the man behave worst than animals. Why laws are implemented strictly? Why the families of criminals try to use all the powers to save the rapists, do they even think what it will be like if it would have happened in their own home? Why there is a race to prove the point that women need to wear certain kind of clothes, certain kind of attire and behavior? Why Boys are treated as if they are the free animals who can do whatever they want? Why there is so much arrogance in boys towards girls? Why sex education is perceived as a sin? Why teachers are molesting students? Why orphanage kids are sexually abused? Why there can’t be any leader who stands up in front of all crimes against women? Why Political class is insensitive? Why Police is not sensitive towards victims? Why? Why? Why?

 42968 Molestation cases, 24206 Rapes, 8570 Sexual Harassments – Source NCRB, 2011

I am extremely disappointed at the political class and religious organizations which are always in a queue to gain publicity but when there is a time to stand up for the cause, they apply the art of looking for trouble, find it everywhere, diagnose it incorrectly and apply the wrong remedies. No freedom fighter would have wished to see India like this. We are still prisoners of our own hypocrisy.

India is no longer a country India was, once upon a time.

I feel helpless, I feel ashamed. The only thing I can do is to keep my home clean. To spread awareness about gender equality and to teach boys nearby me to respect women but it is so little that I feel helplessness.

Daily Prompt: Helpless

 

Teacher’s Pet – Teacher who had a real impact on your life

William Arthur Ward rightly quoted, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

I am fortunate enough to have inspiring teachers from my school days. My father and mother both were teachers and from the very early age I used to worship my teachers. Even having certain kind of issues with some teachers, my respect towards them has been never doubted by soul; I don’t have fault finding tendency, though I must accept at times, I might not have been happy with certain individuals.

In my Primary School days, my father and mother inspired me a lot to participate in various co-curricular activities and that was the reason I was a active participant in elocution and song competitions till 12^th standard. Mr. Vishnu Pandya, whom we used to call V.M.Pandya was a great inspiration to us because of English speaking ability. We used to imitate him while speaking English. In a small village where I was studying, he inspired me to speak English just because of his style and it has helped me over the years in my professional life. Our Principle Devisinh Parmar inspired me to inject discipline in my life. In my college days, I was extremely impressed by two teachers. I don’t like the word professors/lecturers because I feel the word “Teacher” has the great impact and attached respect with it. H.K. Desai impressed me with his simplicity and humble nature; even when I visit his home today, he is just like the person I know. Mr. Jitendra patel had an aura around him. In college days I used to be mesmerized by his personality, style, and discipline. I used to fear from his presence but I admire him a lot for his disciplinary life style.

Vinay Kher left a great impact on my Life and I was never the same. He stands out when I need to owe my life to someone who has inspired me for thousands of reasons.

As Nicholas Sparks quoted, “They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don’t know it”… I didn’t know when I started to learn things from him. It was a crisis time in my life. Personally, I was going through the biggest self-created trauma of my life… I was down and out; I used to lose my mental balance more often than not; my focus was certainly not on my Professional life and he embraced me in his aura. His persona has such a charismatic effect that I could not only come out from the trauma but improved as a professional. My programming became better and my vision changed. He not only taught me how to look at things, but inspired me live a meaningful life.

I haven’t forgotten what he said once… “Keep company of the things which are not alive…like Books, Games and other interest because living things may change after changed priorities”…and this sentence has been extremely influential after that day. I enjoy myself even when I am alone and this was unthinkable before 3-4 years. I wanted to run away from my problems and even from my life and I stopped him indirectly number of times but still he inspired me…

You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it. – J.D. Salinger

When you study great teachers… you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style… I observed a lot on how he works and understood what dedication is!

Fortunately, He is always with me and He always inspires me!

Daily Prompt: Teacher’s Pet

Faith and Hope

Each chapter that is ending leads you to a new beginning,

The past you are leaving means future you are winning,

How you meet each challenge determines what you gain,

So believe that…

The only thing which stands between you and what you want from your life is…

FAITH(In Yourself) To believe that it is possible…

 

I was walking in the morning today and was thinking how will I wrap the above lines in a blog? I got my answer from one word, “Faith”. I thought there is something common in “Faith” and “Hope” but there are differences as well.

Faith: – Complete confidence in a person or plan etc

 

Allegory of faith, by L.S. Carmona (1752–53). Veil symbolizes the impossibility to know directly the evidences.

Hope: -Someone (or something) on which expectations are centered.

Spes or “Hope”; engraving by Sebald Beham, German c1540

Similarities:

• Both drive a person from darkness towards high spirits in testing times.
• They yield positive feelings.

 Differences:

• Faith is related closely to a person (him/her)self and not associated with others (It is my point of view) and so you are responsible for the outcome and believe me, outcome will be +ve in 90% of cases and rest 5% is left for hope.
• Hope and expectations are almost same side of a coin where you yourself are not responsible for the outcome and that is the basic difference where you are dependent on person who is not you and so you have no control on outcome and you can’t cry on the outcome, you can’t take responsibility of the same because you are not the main subject even though you will be the person who will be affected by that outcome for which you are hoping but you are helpless.

Daily Prompt: Un/Faithful

 

 

My New Year’s Resolutions – 2013 and 2012 Resolved

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky; it is so true from last couple of years. Somehow I learnt to be happy on my own in past few years and I could achieve that with not much ease.

The battle with your own self is the toughest to win considering the fact that you are playing all the roles of victim, accused, defense lawyer, prosecutor, and judge. From last few years I have been critical of my own self for the matters which work as colors to paint on the canvas of my new year.

My resolutions from years have been similar but don’t have boundaries. There is always a scope of improvement in each of these and so I don’t change them:

1. To be a better human
2. To control my emotions
3. To do good things
4. To avoid anger
5. To walk a lot
6. To talk with my own self a lot
7. To avoid fake people/friends

Every year I feel as if I need to improve more on the above aspects and I try to work hard to accomplish what I did in last year and I can say with happiness that I find scope of improvement every time. Reason I find that scope of improvement a good thing is the belief that being perfectionist is the end of road and I want to travel a lot in the journey of my life.

I want to be painted more and more with the colors of improved beliefs…

Welcome 2013 J I need you to challenge myself to fulfill my modified goals.

Writing Challenge: New Year’s Resolutions (Doompocalypse Redux)

Daily Prompt: Resolved