Until now!

It has been quite sometime since I have written about how my life is headed. My stay in Pune is now six months and a few days old and I feel youthful and energetic considering that my personal and professional lives are on track without being marred by adverse events. My endless quest for purpose and reason continues with a great deal of introspection aimed at making myself a better person. Continuous improvement (Kaizen) is by all means the best method to help one shape a better perspective leading to a rewarding life.

Quite strangely, I find myself more at ease and less ambitious. I find contentment in elementary things. Watching the Sunset, the birds in the sky, people milling around in the evenings and the endless contour of sometimes unruly traffic excite me more than ever before. Having relaxed ambition for a bit, I feel the pleasure of living a quiet yet fulfilling life the purpose of which primarily lies in understanding oneself and connecting to the cosmic space and the Supreme. All else is relative! Is it not?

True happiness springs from within, without the assistance of an external accessory.
Hence, I consciously strive not to entangle myself in a web of wants and needs, which I am sure will be realized with the passage of time. I am however not sure if I see my current state of being as one of bliss or numbness.

My desire to travel is more than ever and wish for a job that entitles me to do so. After all, people and culture are sources of immense enrichment and pleasure. I'd like to be Lao Tzu's good traveller who has no fixed plan and is not intent on arriving!

My connection with the Creator is firm and beyond a fair share of tests. I know not still if he exists or otherwise and honestly, I am not plagued by the thought. I know that my faith has instilled in my wild being, a sense of discipline like never before and am glad at reaffirming the thought of being an old-school product! I have long known that life has no text-book way of being lived out. Bertrand Russell once said "There are so many new mistakes that one can make, repeating the same ones is not worth." Although, my life is no comedy of errors, I refrain from sulking in the event of having made a mistake. And during tough times, I loudly remind myself that "This too shall pass."

My endeavour is to certainly progress in life and be better than what I already am, I am after all a servant of capitalism and will to some extent remain connected with the selfish theme of recompense, however, the difference is that I remain firmly grounded and connected to reality at all times without losing focus of who I have been 'Until now.'

I want to thank all of you who visit my blog and make me feel worthy of my creation. There is a great deal of inspiration and encouragement that I derive from you and your posts. Life has been and will continue to be a great theater of learning.

On a footnote, I want you to please spend sometime reading the article via the following link which has reiterated my faith in persistence, education, empowerment and most importantly, the zeal to better oneself with a strong positive attitude!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=babd319c-3842-4288-8ae8-91cfce2f5567&&Headline=From+stone+quarry+to+UN&strParent=strParentID

PS: I wanted the above link to appear on the post as a click-link, however, I am unable to make that happen! I tried using the 'Insert link' option but that does not seem to work on my blog. Could someone help?

Wish you were here!

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
........How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here..........
- Wish you were here (Wish you were here), Pink Floyd, 1975

Saluting Richard (Rick) Wright who was the founding member of the band, Pink Floyd and its songwriter,

Without you I would not have known Wish you were here, Interstellar Overdrive, A Saucerful of Secrets, Careful with That Axe Eugene, One Of These Days, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, The Great Gig in the Sky, Us and Them, The Dark Side of the Moon, Division Bell and many many more

Whereever you are, your soul isn't lost amidst even the greatest gig in the sky, there are no more black hole like looks and I will say with high hopes that the dark side of the moon prompts to shine on you crazy diamond.

Living the final cut in remorse, in spirit, numb yet comfortable. Rest in peace.
Heaven is a better place with you around.

Image Courtesy http://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/index.php

Remembering Dr.Randy Pausch

I had not heard of Randy Pausch until, as recently as, the end of July when a friend sent me a link to his famed "Last Lecture." Having heard one of the most inspirational talks ever in recent years, I set out to google Randy Pausch and was stunned to know that he was no more and had passed away on the 25th of July, a victim of pancreatic cancer.

For those who do not know (me included, until a few months ago) who Randy Pausch was, here is a snippet.

He was Carnegie Mellon University's most luminous light ever, simply put! Having started his career as an Assistant and Associate professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Virginia's School, he soon became the Associate Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Design, at the Carnegie Mellon University. He created the Alice Software Project and co-founded the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon while also working on Virtual Reality Research with Disney Imagineers which, as he put it, was his "dream come true."

However it is not all these long list of important positions and accomplishments alone that made him what he became. It was his uncanny ability to keep things simple and most importantly his humane and extremely positive attitude towards life that made him special. Anyone who has listened to his last lecture will agree with me that his courage is unparalleled. How many people would you know who after being told that they had months to live, would live with a more zealous and energetic spirit and go around telling people to be courageous in what they do?

While at the Oprah Winfrey show he spoke about how important life is and how we as people should make an effort to understand that it is not things but people that we need to attach importance to. He spoke about working towards realizing one's true calling and dream and hence achieving the purpose of life. What was perhaps most inspiring during the show was his display of courage and sign of strength when he went down on the floor, despite his condition and did a few strong willed push-ups and told the world of how strong he was while facing death in the face.

His death was indeed very untimely and a great loss to his family, friends, Carnegie Mellon and millions of people who sought inspiration from his deeds and words. Little wonder that Time magazine named him one of the World's Top-100 Most Influential People.

I'll leave you with what I think has been Randy's best quote ever. It goes thus "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."

Do find time to listen to his wonderful words of wisdom, particularly the last lecture, via the following links

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/