My blogging experience (so far)

Last week one of my friend had called me & while talking with him casually about various things, my blog was also discussed. He said quite sarcastically ‘Iam seeing that you have been writing some crap regularly. You have only 2 followers & one of them is your wife (chuckle). I don’t know how many could be reading it, but I can see that nobody bothers to even comment. This whole thing is so stupid; a complete waste of time blah blah‘. He was having a good time, making fun of me & my blog. More on that, later.

This entire concept called blogging had been bugging me for over 2 yrs. I had always wanted to get into it, but there was some mental block about the whole idea of blogging, which was stopping me from starting it. I didn’t know whether I had the ability to write a blog or if I would be able to write regularly for that matter. I didn’t want to start blogging just for the heck of it & then quit after finding it not suiting me. It is not my style.

Time for some bragging & let me cite an example to substantiate my last sentence (statement). While I was trying to get into films, I decided to learn stunts (against the interest of many well-wishers). The very first day of my training, I understood that I may not be able to go very far in stunt class. Because I have a shoulder dislocation problem & the fundamentals of the stunt class was to stand upside down for 2-3 minutes as a warm-up exercise everyday. I was literally struggling in my first class as my shoulders were shaking (while standing upside down) & I was terrified about getting another dislocation. My master ‘Powerfast’ Pandian told me that this vigorous training may not suit me, as a strong shoulder is the base for many stunts like cartwheel, somersault, flipflop etc. But I persisted & said that I will learn these things moderately & go on to learn kicking / punching / stick fight etc exhaustively. I did exactly that for the next 6 months & I made decent progress in all areas, although my shoulder was giving me slight problems now & then.

I stopped my stunt class after 6 months, when I realized that it might not get me anywhere & started to concentrate more on dance classes.

So, coming back to my friend’s call which I had mentioned in the 1st paragraph; When I started a blog, I knew exactly what Iam getting into. I knew that it is a long-term commitment & not a pastime affair. If at all, I had to break the commitment there has to be a good enough reason to do so. I was perfectly aware of the consequences. I was prepared to fail as a blogger. I was prepared to take criticism or indifference for writing something stupid.

But this whole experience of blogging has given me immense fulfillment. I have discovered another facet of myself, which I didn’t even think I possessed earlier. Iam happy about every post of mine, how much ever stupid it looks to others & Iam sure that I would cherish reading them all after 15-20 yrs. When I started with blogging, I was truly struggling with the flow & it used to take a long time for me to write a single blog. Nowadays it has become relatively easier, but ofcourse, I have become more casual now & my choice of words now is definitely not as effective as it was earlier. But I have come to understand that a blog has to be written that way only. It has to be colloquial.

About my blogging time, I come to office everyday by 7am in the morning & leave by 8pm. In between I would be going home for breakfast & lunch. Although Iam busy most of the time at office, I do get some free hours here & there. But I have not reached the level where I can write a blog at any time of my convenience. A lot of times, I would start to type a blog but had to give up, because the concentration & the flow would be lacking. So, I can write a blog only during a certain time in the day (when Iam totally relaxed) & Iam finding it absolutely difficult to blog regularly for that reason. That’s why this interval of 10-15 days between every blog; Otherwise I would love to write a blog everyday.

For that matter, I have been writing another blog ‘ One life – Million dreams ', which is like my personal diary & I have made it as private. I record my day to day experiences there & how I perceive different things all thru. That is more informal & I scribble everything that comes to my mind. I only spend 10 minutes in a day for it & I do it first thing in the morning.

So, on the whole blogging has been a fantastic experience & I intend to continue with it forever. Iam sure that one-day I will reach the level of writing interesting articles on an everyday basis & my quest will continue till then.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

All in our eyes

Life is so complicated; Job is very insecure; Health is not perfectly alright; Not earning enough to buy all that we want; Relatives do not help much; Everyday presents a new problem.

Would not these sentences suit most of our lives? But why is it so? What do you think? Its because we have not learnt to look at our so called problems from a different perspective. We do not know to differentiate between the ‘real’ worries & the ‘unwanted’ worries, that we can easily do without. When you get down to the root of many problems, you will understand that most of the sorrow arising out of them would have been self-imposed.

Long time back, I read a book about being positive (do not remember the name, but its not a famous one, say by Carnegie or Peale). The author would have stated that there are 2 types of problems – one which could be solved with persistent efforts by us & the other type just cannot be solved. The first kind of problem would raise concern with all & taking a little bit of pressure on yourself (only pressure, not worries) is perfectly alright in order to overcome them. For eg, if you lose a job or incur losses in business, you can always come out of it with determination & hard work. But the second kind of problem should not bother you much, as things are just not in your control & by no means can you solve them. For eg, if your car is drowned in a flood, you just cannot do anything, but just follow the procedure to try and reduce your losses. Absolutely no point in complaining about it & blaming the flood. It will only make you weaker & complicate things even further.

Personally speaking, complaining about anything for that matter is not my cup of tea. I take every experience as a lesson & I acquire great values out of them. Everything about life has a meaning & their true messages could be deciphered only at a later point, i.e, if you try. If we look at our problems from another perspective, most of them would appear to be silly. We get irritated about so many simple things in life & we take most of the happy moments for granted.

There is a fantastic dialogue from the movie “ Virumandi “ . Kamal hassan would say something to this effect “ சந்தோஷம்னா என்னங்கறது அத அனுபவிக்கும்போது யாருக்கும் தெரியறது இல்லை!".That is “A person doesn’t realize his happiness when he is actually undergoing it”. ( Roughly translated by a very poor translator). Doesn’t this summarise most of our lives?

I had actually written in one of my previous blog that ‘ Everyday is a gift’ & I would not mind mentioning it again & again. Its true that we cannot stop worrying about certain things in life, but what we can really do is to get over them asap. No sense in worrying about something that you do not have or something that is lost. The basic mistake everyone does here would be in making a comparison between people. “He has 2 houses”, “He lives in U.S “, “Her husband mints money “, “ He goes on a foreign trip quite often” etc etc. Too many comparisons & too many concerns. It’s a very basic human trait & eliminating it completely is just not possible, but atleast we can try to minimize it.

A classic example in my life for this would be my mother. She is a fantastic lady & I have inherited all my fighting spirits ONLY from her. But she still has not learnt the true meaning of happiness completely. She often complains that if I had been to U.S like my friends, I would also be having a lot of material possessions like them. Very true! But should not spending my life with parents under the same roof & taking care of them be considered million times better than living alone in a sophisticated country without them? Shouldn’t she be proud about her son trying to live life on his own terms & always attempting to fulfill his dreams unlike others? How many parents can have a gifted life of spending their old age with their children? Why do people not realize their happy moments & always worry about something that is not there & which may not even give them the same happiness as they think.

Iam definitely not blaming my mother as millions of others are living life that way only. Longing for something we don’t have & not giving importance to those finest things happening in our everyday life. Start cherishing your existing life & be grateful that you have got atleast this. Keep things simple in life & do not make it complicated with unwanted worries. As long as you & your dear ones are healthy, you have a career & going ahead in the right direction, don’t worry & stay happy. There is absolutely nothing you would achieve by fretting & worrying about things that are beyond you.

A lot of people would ask me the secret behind my positive attitude & happiness (despite my tough professional life). Its simple. I do not think about my worries for more than 5-10 minutes in a day. Everyday morning when I wake up, I tell myself that Iam very happy & am in the right track to success. While meditating, I only ask my mind to be peaceful & to radiate happiness thru’ out the day. Take my words – it does work to a large extent. I have had bad days & have lost my temper many times, but it helps to know that your mind could be gradually conditioned over a period of time.

So, be positive. Stay happy & spread happiness. Don’t compare. Keep things simple. Meditate. Most of your worries do not deserve to be called as ‘worries’. They are unwanted ones & unreal. Remember, its all in your eyes.! (Atlast, I justified the heading).