Happiness

Dear Reader,


Here's a post on what I read about happiness.


"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."


Be Happy!!
KK

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Inspiration

Dear Reader,

Lazying around in the morning today, I started surfing the internet. Before you start wondering if I have been fired (considering the current financial conditions), let me tell you that I am enjoying my 3 week holiday at home.

So in an attempt to keep my head busy, I dug into my book-shelf and landed up on my very old diary. I remember keeping this diary to scribble down my thoughts from time-to-time when I was a teenager. So this particular journal had some poems that I had written in 1996. I also came across an award for one of my poetries from www.poetry.com. :)

Now, out of pure inquisitiveness, I visited www.poetry.com. The site and other poets inspired me to gather the courage to share one of my poetries on the site.

Click here to read it and I'd appreciate your comments.

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Bored

Dear Reader,

Some days ago, I was accompanied by a colleague (may be I could call him a friend) to my car.

We sit in and pop comes the question "You listen to the same music all the time, when you drive. Do you not get bored?" Have you ever been asked a question that you do not comprehend completely but have to answer? This was one such question for me. I did not understand how "bored" and "music" could be uttered in the same breath!! Anyway, with a perplexed look on my face, I'm sure he could have sensed that too, I nodded "No".

Yes, I agree that I listen to the same tracks over and over again, until some such time that the CDs start giving in, but there's so much to listen for in a genre like heavy metal!!

Let me go on a tangential thought now. I was watching an episode of Greatest American Dog this evening. Dogs and their owners have to survive 40 days of incredible challenges. The dogs, they take the same set of instructions from their owners and follow the obedience routine over and over again but some dogs looked so much more enthusiastic than the others. It was more like them waiting to find out if there is something at the end of the routine apart from the "treats". They had a spark in their eyes, were keener, faster, performed difficult tasks and were distinguished. Needless to say, those were the ones that were more adorable. Those were the ones that I waited to see perform. Those were the ones who brought their owners one step closer to victory.

I wondered how a dog, whose attention span is lesser than that of a human, be listening to the same instructions and not be "bored"?

So isn't "monotony" an unreal, fictitious restraint that we choose to leash ourselves with? Breaking free from monotony is not about finding a new road everyday, it's about finding a new element in the routine. 

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Catharsis

And the 23rd August is here

Bringing memories of you in my mind

Most, sweet and fond and some the painful kind

You, in good health and spirits, this note to find

Wishing you a Happy Birthday!!

Stretching my arms and floating in pools of desire, I am

Crumbling, yet hoping to find "the one", I am

Dreading the unknown, expecting the unexpected, I am

Blind-folded, treading an uncharted path, I am

Wishing you a Joyous Birthday!!

Somedays I wish to hear you, be near you

A day-dream it is, I know, when I get a cue

Moments once treasured, now a festering scar

I so wish my burning wounds were only a scar

Wishing you a Happy, Happy Birthday!!

To bring you the sense of contentment and fulfilment, this Birthday!!

To make you regain the trust once lost, this Birthday!!

May it bring you your soul-mate, this Birthday!!

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Improv

Dear Reader,

When was the last time that you thought of taking up an activity just for fun? Let me confess that it's been sometime that I gave it a serious thought.

I was presented with an opportunity, a week ago, by a stranger. Yes, a "stranger" who met me for official work on a Thursday and asked me "Why don't you try some theater?". I was as surprised as you are (considering that you are stunned now) with that question and before I could say anything at all, he said, "there's a workshop on comedy this Saturday, would you like to join?".

The next thing I know, I am at the Workshop with a bunch of strangers and all of them extremely creative. The 2-day workshop was called Improvisation on Comedy and was facilitated by Adam Dow.  Although the initial intention of me taking up this activity was to only have fun, I ended up learning a lot by the end of the 2 day program, some that could be used in behavioral training (just in case you didn't know, I am into Learning & Development).

You're onstage without a script,  relying on your mind and wits to come up with lines and actions that advance the game (I'd rather call it a "plot") further. You have no choice but to trust your fellow-players and they are in the same boat as you. That is Improv. Sounds difficult? Let me tell you it is *super-duper* difficult. And to top it up, I was a rookie at it, doing this or anything close to this for the first ever time in my life.

From my experience, two things seem to be very crucial for creating humor - timing and change. Both of these components bring in a surprise element to the audience and that's what keeps them interested. And trust me, neither of these are easy!! Also, without team-work and contribution, the act is going to fail miserably. Each person in the act will need to work with the group while contributing "detail" to the scene. Adam calls it CROW - Character, Relationship, Objective, Where.

So, yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this workshop and will keep my contacts with some of the creative souls. So come back here sometime during the next week and I will have a few more updates / news for you.

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Overture

Dear Reader,

Dream Theatre - I am a die-hard fan. And like any other true music lover, the lyrics are of no interest to me.

Tonight, in an attempt to bring in my music into my new Macbook, I discovered that there is a "whole" album of Dream Theatre that I have never listened to!! Obviously, it goes without saying that the next task in hand for me was to get all the songs downloaded.

As always, the music is so sirenic, alluring, gravitating and invigorating that I had no qualms in repeating the tracks a million times. Generally, I'd be able to gauge the mood of the song with the music however, in this album there were a few tracks that puzzled me. I wasn't able to understand the context. So I decided to check the lyrics to understand the theme behind the album and what I found out blew my brains out!!!!

The album is split into Scenes, each track representing one. The reason why I wasn't able to figure out the mood of some tracks was because I wasn't listening to them in the original sequence. And here's the kicker - Scene 1 is called "Regression" and the lyrics go something like this.

A book about soul-mates and now an album!! May be, it's a sign but I am unable to decipher it.

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