What do you choose?

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

Everyone knows what it means literally. But the interpretation differs. For many it is described as when they have to catch a hot cup of coffee while running to office as they are already late, or ask a house help to extend hours to take care of children, or when boss is never satisfied despite great performance, or when you decide last minute with friends to go watch movie and are searching for a theatre available with seats. Too much for a person!

And then there is a description of a different struggle when a father tries to accumulate every penny he has to pay the school bills of his beloved children, when a mother opts out to make tea for herself as there is not enough milk in the house that morning and cannot be bought too considering financial problems, when a lady is made aware she cannot bear children, when a graduate is unable to find a job due to god knows why, when an enthu upcoming actor tries every contact and still ends up doing side roles which are many time subject to editing.

Struggle is a limited 8 letter word, but is felt and cried for by people across globe for reasons 10times their population. The former reasons are also struggles and the latter ones too, what determines happiness is not whether you have it or not, but how you face it. Of course the former ones seems less serious than the latter ones described, but the person carrying his or her last minute coffee in a rush destroying their whole day in the bad mood along with others needs more attention and care than the lady who happily sacrifices her tea with the hope and determination to change this situation and make her best efforts to come out of it no matter what.

Like it is always said, falling down is not a setback, not getting up again sure is. Focus on how you will get up. And many so called struggles in your life may fade away soon giving you time to think and solve the other ones and become a better person.

A monk- Swami Vivekananda

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached – Says Swami Vivekananda. Who was he? An Indian monk. But why was he entitled by this respect of calling him a Swami? To the one who was so naughty in his childhood that his mother said, “I prayed to Shiva (God) for a son and he has sent me one of his demons”. Because he just didn’t preach but first himself practiced of what he wanted the world to follow and then made sure that then everyone can follow.

Arise – from your fears, from your own prejudices, from other’s viewpoints, from procrastination,from the inner voices that pulls your bedsheet upon your face everytime you hear that alarm clock rings which last night you have only set expecting a better tomorrow.

Awake – from the hypnotized state of mind, from the slumber which has enveloped you, from the sleep which has closed your eyes of face as your mind. It’s time to awaken one’s mind as well as soul to liberate them.

And Stop Not – Do not make this a one time exercise or twice in a week class which will reforms you. The key is to stop not. To be persistent. To be continuous in efforts. To understand what Daily means. Day by day. Everyday.

Yes it’s very very difficult but as well explained by Robin Sharma in his books, every change or a reform is difficult in the beginning, messy in the middle and beautiful in the end. To become beautiful we need to choose what’s difficult. Always remeber, it’s the hammering on a coal that makes it a diamond!!

All the best for your success. Please share what keeps you away from what you want to achieve?

Love-difficult to be defined

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

Love. A very complicated yet simple concept. I cannot boast of being someone who knows all about it, as I am still working on it, hour by hour, day by day. But can share what I feel it is all about. It’s funny but yes love doesn’t and cannot have a definition. It cannot be defined and this liberty is highly celebrated by it. It is an art of patience for someone, freedom of thoughts for someone else. It is found in all time togetherness by someone and is also felt warm and buzzing in long distances. It is as beautiful as a jasmine, as transparent as water, as strong as a brick.. upon which builds up a well fortified relationship. Love is formless-faceless-colorless yet leaves behind long lasting memories. Love knows no boundary, follows no established paths. A new way of expression of love is always welcomed by anyone. Because it is what keeps Love alive, keeps it glowing like a sun, the rays of which enlightens one’s life forever.

Rain rain go away

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ 3 Comments

7.35 a.m. – It was raining heavily. It rained the whole night. Shree, a 20 year old girl, loved rains, but not today. She was already late for leaving for her classes. Being late was not her. She hated to miss the time and especially when she was to attend a lecture. People as students take care of their image when it comes to teachers and being punctual was one of them. It was not completely her fault to be late though. Last night movie and late night gossips with her mom and sister made her sleep long.

8.05 a.m. – While combing and gulping down milk, her mother packed her tiffin and kept in her bag and while she was cursing about getting late as now she will have to ask a rikshaw to drop by her class, she checked her purse for enough money and left her house. She ran down the stairs, impatient to wait for the lift, opened her umbrella and started walking towards rikshaw stand, big steps and saving herself from puddles and water splashes of other vehicles.

8.15 a.m. – She could notice from a distance that the rikshaw stand was deserted. She waited for any other rikshaw to pass by. Rikshaw passed but were carrying passengers and did not stop in rain. She fidgeted. She asked God for help. She thought of God who was her companion and would always listen, at least someone to talk to when no one’s around! She started getting wet as it rained heavily and her umbrella was only good enough to save her hair from getting wet. The cars and bikes passed and she realised there is no way of help, when suddenly it striked her to ask for a lift.

8.27 a.m – She shyly stretched her hand out to ask for lift and was unsuccessful for the first two attempts. But on the third time, which she had decided would be her last if no one stops, a lady passed by her and she felt her heart sink as all hopes of reaching the class on time despite the rain swept away with rain. But then she heard a horn.. Two beeps.. She looked in the direction of sound.. And it was that lady who just passed, paused after crossing her and wanted to help her, by offering a lift. Shree was delighted to see that someone wanted to help her. She was no less than God to her, who not only stopped and offered for help, but divine coincidence was that the lady’s office was near her class, and that lady dropped her to her class. Shree reached the class very well in time.

No words or expression were enough that day to express her gratitude for that lady. Shree is grateful to God to have helped her in the rain.

We are sometimes caught up in a situation, from where we find ourselves difficult to move forward, we are stuck, unable to draw conclusions, unable to find reasons. However trust God, he has made plans for us. He knows when not to stop a rikshaw as he has arranged a better lift for you..

Trust and be grateful!

To grow up

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

I wanted to grow up, become the elder one I used to idolise. Father, mother, elder sister… Their busy- Ness amazed me. Their capabilities to decide, their control over situations used to amaze me. I spent times wondering my actions when I will be what they are. When I will be what they couldn’t be as well, perhaps. Time spent wondering brought the time to action. I was unprepared.. As I was wondering only. I wasn’t informed about what their struggles were. How hard was it to take a decision. A decision which affected lives, theirs and others as well. Why didn’t they share earlier that behind their decisiveness laid so much of stress, thought process, fear of failure, uncertainty of success and what not! I now realize it wasn’t their age that made them elder to me, it was their ability to take responsibility for their actions, their strength to take risks, their willingness to explore and prove their abilities that made them elder. Respectful. I still want to grow up and still want to become the elder one with the said abilities.

Wait.

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ 3 Comments

Doesn’t matter how much you wait, what matters is how you behave while waiting. It’s simple no?! We live our lives following goals, waiting for the goals to be fulfilled and once done, the other goals replace the existing ones easily. We live life waiting to feel the accomplishments, the pride, the fulfillment, the joy, the happiness, and wait doesn’t get over in lifetimes. When we wait, these emotions work at the backdrop, behind the scenes, and it would be negligent of us if we overlook them.
Live in the waiting too, you never know when your goals were bound to be fulfilled in those times if you were at all listening to it rather than cribbing for the unknown time to come. Live the wait. Live now. Live happy.

Happy New Year aka New You

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ 3 Comments

Happy Diwali to all..

Happy New Year

New plans, same time.

New day, same sun.

New aspirations, same life.

New targets, same struggle.

“Same you ” won’t work in the new year, make a new you, make the changes wanted to achieve what you want, People succeed and achieve what others don’t by following habits that other don’t.

Live the new year with new you so as to not repeat the old year again.

PS – The featured image is the Rangoli made by my brother😊

Early to Rise

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

Had never thought of writing – on an early morning, in a garden, after completing my 30 mins walk! Now this is absolutely something I had never dreamt of and God has his way of unfolding his surprises. I loved this one! Sitting near one of the main entrances of the famous Kamatibaug garden in Vadodara, I am feeling peaceful, filling in all the oxygen😜 and happy to be here at the very first place. Grateful.

Now pointing down reasons of my uncontainable happiness –

1. Fresh air. Such sweet smelling, cool and fresh air is in scarcity, especially for us when we spend lives in offices and back brick-mortar homes, no nature around. This has to be the go to place for the oxygen rather than the oxygen cylinders otherwise required!

2. Companions – We stall our getting up early and exercising excusing that “it doesn’t matter and others would not be doing it too.. It’s a cold morning, winter is here” and blah blah.. But hello.. You reach any of such garden and realise you are late… Late maybe by time – minutes, hours or may be years!! Take out your time and go for it today!

3 Birds and animals – I love listening to birds voices, especially in the early mornings and evenings, when they are on and off to work, respectively. They add music to nature. And watching dogs around, stretching, cuddling up, walking gives you an impression that you are not alone! You can be lucky to watch parrots as well as squirells too😊

4 Variety-I observed a variety of people around me, from all walks of life, children with their dads and moms following them, group of men and women talking about common interest topic, youngsters with cool outfits and gadgets and old aged ones with so much of enthusiasm. Their smiling faces remind me that this is the way to live the life blessed by God. Justify every single moment of it.

5 Laughter club- With old age people in the garden, a laughter club is a must where they gather and laugh out loud together. It’s healthy for heart and lungs and mind too, releasing all stress out and inhaling all oxygen in. Exhale out bads, inhale in goods. Mantra of life.

Peace-If you want to be you, live a moment without tension and fear, without stress of meeting deadlines and without worries of career or family, get up early and come here. You will be given enough positivity to feel peace and calm your mind.

I am feeling so up while writing this, especially to let myself and people know that it’s all WORTH it.

Expression of love

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ 3 Comments

Most of the romantic movies end at ” They lived happily ever after”, but the same is a fake idea unless they know happiness is not easily available, they have to make efforts to achieve it.Love is blind, I agree, to an extent though. But, hello…Love is not dumb, and so yes it asks for patience, determination, trials, and trust.

This reminds me of a story I read somewhere, and I would like to present the story here.

The husband had a big day in the office as he will be knowing about his performance and promotion. He was nervous and his wife prepared a good breakfast for him to lighten his mood and reduce his nervousness, as much as she could. He reached office and by afternoon he got the news of his promotion. He was overwhelmed and wanted to inform his loving wife when he refrained himself to do so and planned to tell her when he reaches home in the evening and then would take her for dinner outside at her favorite restaurant which served delicious Chinese food.

He reached home at his usual time in the evening and was prepared to break the news to his wife when he noticed the dining table was filled with his favorite Mexican food dishes and chocolate pudding dessert. He perceived that his wife already knew about his promotion, but how!? Who must have told her?!She emerged from her room and on finding his husband home, she said, ” Hi, how was your day? What happened? Promotion?”He was puzzled and asked, ” Didn’t you knew about it? Or else why would you have prepared all this for dinner?”She replied, with a smile, ” Dear, I prepared the dinner for you, unknowingly whether you got promoted or not. If it was a promotion then we would have considered it a promotion celebration, and if not, then we would have celebrated our love, irrespective of life offerings!”

He was amused by the love of his wife for him and shared his news of promotion with her. He realized the depth of her love and… ” they lived happily ever after”.

Give Change some time

~ Rupali (In my Pursuit to Satisfaction...) ~ Leave a comment

The puppy felt love and happiness at his owner’s home, but always had the urge to explore the world. “I feel caged, I want to be free”, he thought to himself.

One fine morning, he ran away and found a group of cows, munching food, sitting lazily on the road. He then found some stray dogs too and was excited and happy to think that ” yes, this is how I wanted to live, free, on my own.” He started the day with them, in hunt of food and water, and ended up with some food and people shoving them off and cars passing by irresponsibly. He got afraid, hungry, puzzled on what to do.

He kept dwelling on his decision of running away, pondering whether his need of freedom was his greed and thinking about his inability to contain the change. He ran back to his owner’s house where he thought he would be welcomed well. But all in vain. He found another puppy tied to the house pole. He wept. He realized his mistake. His mistake was not his running away from home to search freedom. His mistake was his discontent, his inability to let life sink in the change.

Change is inevitable and change is beautiful, they say. But beautiful things are costly too. Beautiful changes in life costs one’s perseverance, patience and faith. Faith in life. Faith in oneself.