Walking a dog.. and not knowing it

Out for a walk with a friend. And a dog out of nowhere starts following us. Now this friend of mine tells me, this is what they do quite often, follow people for want of company, when they’re really lonely. He wasn’t kidding. And was the whole experience incredible or wat!

We walk and it follows. We stop and yea you guessed it. We do this a couplof times. Then we stop for good, the dog sits down like we’re all hanging out together, looks at us and starts wagging its tail!

I absolutely love what happened then! I mean yea it’s sad that it was lonely and needed company so bad, but the whole sequence of events was unbelievably amazing. You had to be there to really get it. Just something about them, really very special, that connects so well with us humans.. I don’t know how to put it!

To all the "much more than good" ppl I adore.. Cheers!!

I hear a shrill “Be good!!!” every morning around 8, when my neighbour sends her daughter off to school.. Ok nothing spectacularly special about this, all parents want and expect that from their lil darlings. Good thing too, if that does indeed percolate to the core of all these cute precocious minds and they turn out good.

Good enough for starters I say… are we done here? Ok so what happens if we’re good and just that. We sympathize with the people “born into” picking through and clearing out garbage. We are nice to our domestic help. We help with work at home. We feel bad about sickly men waving mangled arms helplessly at us through the car window, and hold out some money for them. We play fair at work, a sparkling clean conscience thanks to our sitting happy with only what we think we deserve. We do not refuse an ailing man a ride to the nearest hospital. We do not wrong anybody deliberately.

And what when we’re good AND that something more.. say ‘X’. We don’t stop at sympathizing with the victims of ridiculous notions like a different caste; in fact help them help themselves. We are nice to our domestic help, and understand how they make ends meet, and provided we find takers for all this - we take time out to help them and their kids read and write, discuss matters like we would with a colleague, in turn broadening their thinking, thus changing perspectives and mindsets of them and a host of people they connect with, and be there for them in their direst times (ok I have seen this really work!). We do not stop at doling out alms, we do something to help them sustain. Now that ‘something’ will sound clichéd, preachy and will definitely invoke the “darn, shes at it again” feeling.. but if not this then what?

We do not only be fair at work, we voice out concerns against discrimination, whoever be it at the receiving end. We try and get involved with work we like, as against getting into a rut of doing work that we chance upon or is handed down.
And yea, its not only about not refusing someone a ride when asked, but about being the one to step ahead and help someone helpless and hurt, when most others ‘be good’; ‘feel bad’ for who’s lying out there, in ‘being good’.

Its one thing to feel good about doing good, with convenience, comfort, effort and time spent, all skewed in our favour. Its another, to really mean to see our ‘being good’ translate into a substantial enough impact. Not ok to fool oneself into feeling good about doing just enough to stay away from pangs of guilt. That’s analogous to scrubbing clean our corner in a room full of shit, and being ok with the stench that’s floating around you. Now dealing with that takes initiative and action-orientedness, the kind that’s obviously not inherent, but rubs off onto you from the others around.. this kind of non-passive “goodness” if inculcated in all.. would work wonders!! Don’t you think!

Hmm

Hope somebody gives this some thought.
Five things we ought to consider–
Introspect – No alternative here. And yea introspection does throw up surprises. We hardly ever know why we do what we do. The following-the-herd syndrome is synonymous with living life on Mr.X’s terms. Makes no sense, an absolute disgrace to us human beings, supposedly endowed with enough intellect so as to analyse objectivism and invent the beer widget. So once we spend some time finding out what WE’re like, we figure out what WE want to do, hence a step closer to being happy.

NOW, NOW, NOW!! – So much more easily said than done. Procrastination – voluntary, involuntary, subconsciously, all the time, at times – is more like the order of the day now. Hardly anyone who’s not faced with the ordeal of having to resort to postponing something or the other. The fact that we’re growing immune to how this “ummm…some other time..” is merrily eating away into the hundred odd pleasures and opportunities life has to offer, is Painful. We first begin with letting the gravity of this situation sink in. And then try and understand how if we want to do something and have the chance to, we do it now. Life’s too complicated, uncertain and short for these ‘second’ chances to come our way.

A list of all that largely matters in life. And it’s statistically proven we take 85% of those for granted. Relationships, family, friends, small pleasures, hobbies and interests, several more, all blend in and help make life meaningful. Let this sink in, and then go ahead ensure you’re not barricaded from all these, thanks to the cloak of ‘workaholism’ or plain laziness.

Have deep, meaningful conversations once in a while. The fun, gossip and superficial, light hearted banter that’s in the air, naturally and befittingly so, when a group of friends or relatives meet up, is a stress buster, undeniably. But the good old discussions about choices, morality, altruism, self interest, the big murky question marks and crossroads in life, and tons of other aspects of life, have not lost their relevance at all. These help engender bonds and have an ‘endorphinic’ effect on people (again, statistically proven).

Be yourself. This is certainly the easiest of them all. Effortless, and with guaranteed high returns. Being confident, assured, not a ‘social metaphysician’…living up, is the way to be be :)

Hahahaha

I’ve been meaning to start blogging for as long as I can’t even remember. Glad I’m finally down to writing my first blog :) And obviously only getting down to it does not suffice… ok, what AM I going to write about. What I deem EXTREMELY important in life – a good sense of humour.

Most people appreciate humour. Invariably, there exist dissimilar brands of humour in different people, AND, the same people evolve to develop a predisposition and understanding of different kinds of jokes. As toddlers we’ve laughed with glee at Bhaiya or Didi making funny faces at us, pre-school and school gave birth to the devil in us, we took pleasure in Ramu Kaka losing balance and falling off his bicycle, and in watching mummy tire herself out, running after us with the plate of food we always wrinkled our nose at. Teenage changed our world, to the extent that focus shifted from family, uncles and aunts to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and.. ahem… special friends too :D. This drastic change of orientation, and the typical obsession with everything ‘cool’, led to this silly yearning for scoring high on the popular-o-meter, a tendency to try hard to be funny, and our initiation into the infinite (and occasionally gross) realm of jokes which are unfashionably ‘carnivorous’ :P (Ok, there certainly are exceptions to the kind of progression I’ve described, a.k.a. ‘weirdos’, I guess I’m one of them :D)

A few of us have to be credited for growing out of adolescence to develop this awesomely awesome knack of striking the right chord, no matter what the occasion or circumstance. As far as they're concerned, from a deadly combination of maturity, childlikeness and forthrightness, stems a sense of humour, which I’m absolutely a fan of. I really admire people who have what it takes to make others laugh, at the cost of absolutely nobody’s sentiments, risking only a stomach that hurts like hell after a crazy bout of rofl. I’m kinda reserved, owing to which I don’t really open up to many, and inspite of that I’ve been fortunate enough to have come across these super people who totally dig situational humour (vote for that as the alltime fav), have this uncanny ability to pass funny comments, use super-witty word play to poke fun, make light of anything and everything, are lip-smackingly sarcastic, use high-voltage drama for effects and exaggeration, sniff out every possible opportunity to crack a joke.. these are the people who more often than not hog all the airtime and limelight, and are forever centre stage and very adorably so :) I’m not endowed with this gem of a gift, but do have the sensibilities to value and appreciate this in others, and am I glad or what.

I’ve realised most people who’re effortlessly funny, are the ones extremely candid, who speak their minds and hearts out with no holds barred. I’ve also realised how humour is this great adhesive which aids bonding as fast as araldite, this is from first-hand experience (special mention of ‘THE HAND’ here again :D). Cheers.. to those (my family and friends) who regularly inject this vial of humour in life, which keeps me going, the awesomest thing that ever happened to me :)