Live Longer Folks!

I am a lot into 'lists' these days.....So here's a splendid one I stumbled upon....
Mine (still a rough draft) to be published soon..... Till then...enjoy this!

1. Don't cut out anything. If it exists and you like it, fine, just use moderation, that's the key word. More stress is caused by denial than this world dreams of.

2. Don't push yourself. As you get older slow down and ignore all those experts who tell you about cardio whatever because crazy exercise is close to manslaughter...you have nothing to prove, so sweat but don't sweat it.

3. Drop envy as a companion. The green eyed monster eats your heart out and nibbles at your mind like a rat. You cannot be the other person so what's the point of working yourself over it.

4. Listen to your body. it always gives warning signs. Crisis is seldom sudden, it happens because we duck the signs, like it's only indigestion when it is not. It's your life...sobering thought...they'll be talking on their mobile phones at your funeral.

5. Stay out of debt. Credit cards can kill you and there is nothing worse and more humiliating than being chased for money...as corrosive as rust.

6. Smell the roses. No point having a garden if you won't stop to enjoy it. Beyond a certain degree of wealth and success it is all repetitive so find repose, rest, relaxation and get a hobby even if you are 72...hobbies are good medicine.

7. Laugh. It is incredible how problems shrink when you can funny mirror your life and yourself and all the pomposity around you. Be serious but don't take props seriously. Your designation, your seat of power, your perks, your silly car brand, your address, these are all passing fancies or sad, little crutches.

8. Don't drag the past with you. That's why it is the past. Yesterday. Learn from it but if you insist on carrying it into the present and the future all you'll end up doing is bleed.

9. Save your time. It is precious. Don't squander it on inconsequentials be that events, people, hangers on, projects etc. Use it for family. Family counts.

10. Do something good. For children. For the world you live in. For an individual. For an animal. Nothing like a good deed to get the adrenalin flowing...goodwill is so under-rated.
Bikram Vohra

Happiness is Homemade

"My simplest advice to everyone out there; if it hurts, let it go. Life is way too short to waste any time at all. You're only young for so long, and every moment you spend dwelling on the things that only cause you to hurt, is precious time wasted where you could have been out adventuring around, making more memories to look back on. Nobody wants to remember the nights they sat around crying. They look back at the adventures they had while they were young. The good nights, days, whatever. 
And when you find someone where it feels like the first time every time, don't let that go. Don't give up without a fight. To hell with anybody who makes you feel like you're ordinary. Don't waste your time. And I am not kidding, when you find this person, hold tight and do not ever let them go. It rarely happens. And you'll know it, because that is when you feel most alive. It's a pretty shitty world, no jokes. But you can be happy if you want to be."

Don't know who wrote these lines....but they touched me! 

Love...

"Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.” ~ Courtney A. Walsh

Love...

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.
You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...
You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and
then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
- Neil Geiman

L's wisdom in lame words ;)

H: Mere mann mein bahut ashanthi hai....
L: Ashanthi kyoon, prashanthi kar le..
H: Lokesh please..... seriously yaar....I just don't like this cat on the wall business....It should be either here or there for me....
L: Let the cat go out and play in the garden.
H: Ok, I have understood, Patience is all the strength that man needs....
L: Even Batman?????

In his mazaak mazaak, I got all the answers required.....

Our first response when have an issue is that we  focus a lot on the negative side of things. As a result we only create more and more ashanthi for ourselves. If for once, we contemplate on the positive, its all Prashanthi then :) Sometimes we absolutely fail to understand the power of our thoughts while in a situation. Imagine a jar of pringles/candy kept beside a jar of peanuts/almonds.....what do we opt for in times of stress....obviously the chips & the chocolates and definitely not the almonds. Well well well so thats our answer......we have trained our minds and body soooo well, that in times of stress and problem junk and unhealthy is the answer, and same holds true for minds, problem hai toh bura hi socho, acha toh ho hi nahi sakta....but what's the effect of this candy bars on our body.....we feel better for not more than 30 minutes but get more stressed soon after and crave more of the candies....Negative thoughts are just that - Candies & Pringles, momentarily they might bring some ease by thinking about the worst case scenario, but it fails to bring any long term ease. Positive thinking on the other hand is like the peanuts and almonds, gives the body & mind the nutrition and strength to deal with the situation at hand effectively. So, it might be difficult to reach out for the almonds & peanuts in times of trouble, but if practised we can lead ourselves from Ashanthi to Prashanthi just by virtue of our thoughts. :)

Next, when he said about letting the cat out.....how true.....!
If I have an emotional problem today, I will think about nothing else but the problem....think think think!!! And then worry worry worry! I don't appreciate the sun, not grateful to God for the gift of family and friends and Life, nothing at all....I only worry about that problem till it blows out of proportion and I reach to a stage where one more thought about it can possible blow me!!!! Instead why don't I just let the cat out. Why don't I just pause a moment and quit worrying about the issue. It's definitely not so serious....instead if I concentrate on other things or work....I will grow and not blow.... ok now that's lame! ;)
His tip was simple - Stop Thinking! And though it is veryyyyy difficult, just imagine yourself actually letting out a struggling cat who runs into a beautiful sunny garden, rolling into the grass and chasing butterflies....even though I hate cats this vision actually made me smile and feel peace sprout within. Shutting the mind is not so difficult after all.....We have heard the saying "The soul knows how to heal itself, the challenge is to silence the mind." :)

And yes Patience is a virtue stronger than all body's might...and Batman does need it! It's a bad day perhaps but never a bad life! :) 

That's Man

No matter how blessed, man can always find something to grumble about.
Sad but true. 

Satirically, Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl, unlike other TV shows, does teach a lot of things; YES, it can teach......Few being -

1) You can throw a lavish party even within 3 hours notice, along with a theme, and expect scores to turn up complying exactly by the theme. 

2) FASHION is RELIGION. 

3) Life is boring if Gossip Girl doesn't send out a post for more than 3 hours. 

4) It's easier to trust an unknown lady with great spying skills than your own childhood best friend.

5) A few thousand dollars here and there don't really matter. 

6) It is possible to go from lonely to The One, if you are on Gossip Girl's radar. 

7) Yes, you can sleep peacefully every night, even though the entire city knows your pranks. 

8) It is possible to wake up like a Diva, with hair and make up done, every single day. 

9) "I am 18, I feature in Gossip Girl, no I don't need to study. High School is my highest qualification." - any GG cast.

10) "My mom is my enemy." - most GG girl stars.

11) A series based on teenagers now no longer means more of classroom shots, quite the contrary, it shows them everywhere else like staircase, clubs, fancy restaurants & huge mansions, barely in classes.

12) You can do sin and hide from God, but not from the eyes of Gossip Girl.  

Though the above is obvious satire, there is some thing I really learnt - 

SAY YES ALWAYS! Be it for a party that Dan hates, or a vacation that Serena does not have on the cards, an illegal affair that Nate is afraid to reveal, living on a yacht & biking for the not so adventurous Chuck Bass or marrying a guy, Blair is not in love with.....Whatever it is, their best and most unexpected moments of life come when they agree to get out of their comfort zone and say yes at every opportunity, whether to their liking or not. 

XoXo.....