C'est La Vie;That's life

No big deal, one would think? Well, one's wrong and one has to think again. There's enough difference between the two, to make wordsmiths uncontrollably weep with tears of joy or split their white hairs. Don't believe me? Prepare yourself for this earth-shaking (at least in my mind) discovery. Envy is when we badly want or desire what someone else has- yes, it's that new house, new car, dress, whatever other people have and we don't. It's interesting to note that we never look at those way above our strata - so, those helipadders, penthouse owners or exotic island hoppers never come in our radar because our brain has knocked off those from our check list way back. Those below our own levels don't even come into the picture simply because, it defies the very definition of what we are trying to define. So, who's left, you say? The fellow humans who come from our similar background, and have lead similar lives, make money more or less like ...

When you need it the most. Obviously, for raising kids. In the by-gone, black & white, pre-digital era when joint families still existed, there was definitely, literally and truly- a village. In fact, am going to call it "The Village". Where there were people of different age groups, genders, personalities (some of them quite colorful) that roamed about freely. Some were close families, some extended, and the ones "no-one-knows-who", but somehow get mysteriously added to the tree. Nah, just kidding, am sure the seniors would eventually get there by racking their brains to come up with a twisted, long-winded term to justify their relationships to the pack. Neighbours were close enough to be called part of the families too. My point being - all these people directly or indirectly had a big impact on the children of the household. Was it all positive, inspirational, fairy-land style of an influence? Heck, no. No such dream place ever existed. People ar...

Is there really one in our body? Or, maybe it's just a wacky, weird word play on the actual "humerus" bone. Who says Science and Literature don't mix, right? Be that as it may, having the ability to laugh with (note, not "at") others is a great habit to groom, polish and whatever else you do for general sanity check. Laughing apparently releases endomorphins or "feel-good" chemicals in our body- that's what researchers say, not me. So, anything from clowns, funny shows, even if a pathetic physical tickle is what it takes to get a smile, would be fine. Now, bear with me on this laziest one in the history of analogies. Imagine you're at the bottom of a hill. Ready, set, this would your starting position. Moving up, have you noticed how it's so easy to laugh at external things, but not at ourselves? But, if we do want to get there, we got to travel a long way to taking ourselves a little less serious than others do. Rea...

One of the great things about mid-life is that you've finally hit that average point in your life span, when the last 40 years and maybe the next 30 years of your existence kind of evens out.  It gives you that perfect space in life to settle down without any crutches, look back and front with no neck cramps, and mostly, contemplate deeply without getting lost in your thoughts and getting stuck in 'seniledom', and do the one act you've always wanted to do but denied the most - freely comment on the world at large with a minimum 50% accuracy, give or take few well-intentioned, but completely misguided advices (yeah, we've all been there, bungled that).  So, on that lousy, rotten statistical note, let's start rating you now.  Have you always felt how much our lives are constantly observed, evaluated and left hanging on random scales?  Looks like it's become compulsory need that whatever we're doing now or done in the past has to be measured...

Have you realized that there's way too much information floating around these days? It almost seems impossible to get by an hour, forget about a day, that we're not bombarded with words around us. Visually, it's either the loud marketing messages when you're watching the TV, or the in-your-face pop-up ads (can block them all you want but they're there to cleverly "boo" wherever you go) when we're browsing the net or take even the billboard ads, posters, signposts staring at us when we get out of our house. And, then there are the audio messages thrown, starting from those living with us like our parents, spouse, siblings giving an earful, or our teachers, bosses, co-workers telling us to do things better. I know i'm skewing on the negative side here, but honestly, how often do you hear anyone praising each other these days (except on the Utopian, fairytale world of FaceBook where everybody "likes" everything). I suppose some...

Honestly, I've no idea how I got here....but guess it is true. My 100th post already. Still hanging in cyberspace and no remote idea how. Or for that matter why. It just seems like yesterday that "blogging" seemed like a natural extension of my "blabbering", decided to give a break to the poor jaws and let my hand do some venting for a change. Got a sudden urge to spare the rest of humanity surrounding me from my incessant and specific views of anything and everything. Misery loves company, so i told myself - why limit the torture? No, seriously, all this writing has been nothing short of a revelation and brought out a different dimension that i never knew existed in me before. I've thoroughly enjoyed this process and the complete freedom of speech that it reinstated. It's sort of a liberation of untold magnitude. So, to those of you who have a burning desire to blog and to others who want to but are dilly-dallying, i have this to say - ju...

continued from part 1..... Let's start from the bottom of Maslow's pyramid, which is Physiological & Safety needs . These are our basic survival ones like eating, breathing, clothing and, living under a decent roof. The human mind will come to grinding stop if these are not met, and you'll be unable to even think about the next level of needs. Don't believe me? Try dieting/fasting for a day, and you'll be amazed how your fat brain (please, it's a compliment) which used to process complicated thoughts like the greenhouse effect, looming elections, world economy etc. till the day before, can obsessively think of only one thing and nothing else now, which would be the magical, four-letter manna - FOOD. Anyways, these needs would probably come from the closest relationship of all, i.e. parents or caregivers. And, from an evolution point of view, would be our Infant/Childhood stage. Next, is the Love/Belonging needs, which deals with our sense of ...