Chai

So today's about chai. For those of you who don’t know what chai is, I thought I would define it for you guys until I searched for a definition on the urban dictionary. I wasn’t more surprised to learn that chai is a common word for milk tea with a little Indian spice in the US. I’m not sure if they do call it chai in the US but that’s exactly what chai is. My mom made some for us a while ago. Personally, I don’t quite feel that there exists any other chai in the world that’s got anything on my mum’s chai. I mean it’s the best, which made me wander, how can somebody judge for the best chai in the world.

So with little sips of the beautiful chai, I had a little flashback to a few years ago when we were driving back from a vacation which ended because of me getting chicken poxed. I was just waiting for my home to appear out of nowhere with a dead stare on the never ending road when my uncle ordered to stop the car because he wanted to taste the chai of the dhaba he heard of. He claimed though, that they served the best chai of in the whole northern India. So how do you really judge for the best chai?

See everyone has their own taste. Where I’m from, people are really sensitive with their chai. Here in India, any professional chai-wala has to face more critics than compliments. Some like it strong, some have a lighter taste. Some want it to be sweeter; some go for the “less is more” thing. I like strong and sweet. According to me, the perfect chai doesn’t exist. A heaven for one may be a hell for another. I know some people might find the topic weird. Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve been writing stuff about life, motivation, mostly courage, which has attracted most of the visitors I have today. But that’s what I do I’m a thinker. I like wandering.. And there’s a reason I chose this topic to write on. It’s that this discussion about the perfect chai I had in my head lead me to a pretty neat conclusion.

Some things in life cannot be held to judgement for perfection, for their perfection can only be seen without judging them. Seeing the beauty of effort they made to present us with something, I think it’s enough that we are able to generate a feeling of gratitude and respect for them. 

“If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.” -Voltaire.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I was asked to write a short story in the "blank space". The blank Space is a book that is going to be published by an organisation that believes in providing education to the people by any means enjoyable. I was told to keep the way of writing such that i was targeting the audience who have a habit of running away from books. Sounds cool right? lol. So i wrote it, trying to keep it simple. Here it is. If you like it, please tell me :)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Once, there used to be a shy boy, who, like every other average boy or a girl around him, used to go to school, attend classes and come home. There was something different about him. He always lagged behind in his grades, and never did he talk much. He never used to do things that are generally presumed by the society when a child starts falling down in his grades. He was well behaved, well mannered, quite spoken. His teachers confused, his parents worried, started assuming that he may have a mental problem. Little did they know what went through his own mind; little did he himself know what went through his own mind.

The boy had a habit of wondering about how things would have been different if he would have acted differently in the day to day situations he faced. He wondered so much that a normal person would call him a “day dreamer”. He always tried hard in his studies but most of his hard work was wasted in just trying to concentrate on what it is that he’s reading. He could never concentrate because of his habit of wondering; neither could he tell anyone about it, because he himself didn't know what the problem was. So he just kept trying hard and somehow he went through his school.

After finishing his school, he had to decide what career he wanted to make his own. He chose the subjects that seemed to be cool and well paying in the future but were really tough for him. With courage, he decided to go on with the tough subjects. Later on he figured out he had the same problem in college; he couldn't concentrate in his studies. But he never lost hope. He started dedicating his time in finding out methods for “how to do well in studies”. After a lot of research he came across a book called “the secret”. That book, the secret, proved to be a real secret that was worth the hardship he has gone through all his life till now.  From the book, he learned that we can do or we can be whatever we want to, if we believe in ourselves. He really liked that concept and decided to search more about the knowledge he received from the book. As he, step by step, kept going deeper and deeper into his research, he came across immense knowledge. Soon he realized the fact that the identity of a person is made from what he or she has gone through. He started to accept himself and his habits to wonder about things. He always enjoyed wondering about how life works and how people behave and why they do so. So he started converting his thoughts into texts. He started writing, and he enjoyed it. After starting to dedicate his time and resources in doing something he liked, it didn't take him much time to realize that he can really be successful. He realized how sharp he was and how well his mind worked. After doing a lot of hard work, he became a successful writer.

The title of the story “what do you want to be when you grow up” signifies a lesson, that whenever somebody asks you this question; always tell them what you like. Always take time to think about what you love to do, because it’s always better to work hard for something you love, rather than working hard for something that you don’t.

The end.

To everyone who read the story, I want to ask this "do you wanna do something that is not what you're doing right now? do you want to be on any other path ?" . The most interesting part of the life is to identify who you are and what you really wanna be. Most of the people live in an illusion created by people surrounding them, telling them what's good for them and what's not. Nobody can tell you what you have to do; their job is to advise, not create boundaries. Its not only your choice but your responsibility to decide how your are going to contribute to the society. It's best for both you and the world that you do what you want to do and what you're best at. You know what you're best at. Once you've decided what you are and what you want to become, turning your dreams into reality is not a big deal.

Turning Dreams Into Reality

Couldn't find a better start.

"Everybody knows what to do. They wait for someone to tell them." - Hritik Roshan. 

 Nobody has the right to tell you how big or small your dream is. Nobody, but you, has the right to define your limits, how capable you are or you can be. People who dream are the people who make. People who wish different, are the people who stand out of the crowd because they have their special dreams, dreams that were once not accepted by people around them, dreams that were rejected and were told that they were impossible or inappropriate, that they then turned into reality. The people who stood for their dreams, protected their dreams and made them real, knew that if they too start thinking like the others, they'll be letting them plant the seed of negativity in their minds which after words is going to do nothing but create an immense barrier between their dreams and their reality. But they never did let them plant the negative seeds. They took over, conquered, and became the identities that other people now look up to, for inspiration.

For people who set an example, they say "they dared to dream". I say you don't have to "dare" to dream. Dreams are the only thing purely yours. nobody can tell you what to dream or how to dream or when to dream. You dream however you want, how much you want and whenever you want to. You have courage. You have strength. All you need to do is put that courage and strength into the right place, onto the right track, where your dreams are headed. As you make sure your will and your dreams go parallel to each other, you shine.

"Our deepest fear is not that we're inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we're powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. Their is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children. Its not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Timo Cruz.

I put so much pressure on the word "dream" because i understand something. Its the importance of dreams. To people who understand the importance of dreams like i do, who share this understanding with me, i wanna say this- Dreams are the most prized possessions. Each one of us is here on a path, maybe a starting point or too close to the goal, because we want something. we took a decision; a decision based on a dream. when we took that decision, we ended some amount of negativity. deciding the next step always kills negativity. No dream is too big or too small. Judging the size of dream does no good, wastes time, that can rather be spent on working, trying to turn that dream into reality. I like to write. I like to think about how life works, how mind works, how we behave, how they behave and why. I like expressing my thoughts and i have a dream that this will be my occupation and i will be known for it.
PS- I wrote some stuff on courage and strength, click on it. it's a nice read.

To  make something special, you just have to believe it's special.

Courage And Strength

"Courage isn't having the strength to go on. it is to go on even if you don't have strength"

Courage is a funny thing. Courage can not exist if fear doesn't prevail. It is important to experience the fear of giving up in the situations when you have to make a decision to keep fighting or to back off. We have an unlimited amount of strength within us. Our capabilities are endless. What we can make possible with our actions, can not be measured. But that strength is required to be found within, and pulled out, and courage is the tool required to do so. In life we face moments when we know we have a lot of strength reserved inside of us but we just don't feel like going on with it and decide to give in, maybe because the reason why we started doing it lost its importance, or faded away. On the other side their are moments when we just don't wanna give in. We decide to keep going because giving in is just not considered an option. We know right away that we aren't going back with this thing. We're here to do it and we will. we decide. its our decisions that produce courage and in turn, strength. 

photo source: google

Turning dreams into realities requires a belief. A belief that the hard work will pay off. If you believe in your goals, all you need to do is keep taking a step forward. Now that seems like a simple task but it isn't. No its not that difficult too, if you believe so. And that's where courage comes in. Sometimes it requires a hell lot of courage to take the next step. But hey, the results are a hell lot bigger too. So keep walking. You are strong. All you need to do is decide and hold on to that decision.

Every person is born twice.

the quote of life.

Understanding Reality.

"Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure. All things are only it's manifestations, and good deeds and evil deeds are only the result of good thoughts and evil thoughts respectively. Imagination, thoughts and will make deeds, and by our deeds we make ourselves. all that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, made up of our thoughts." - The Patriach Hui-neng

"The stuff of which the world of our experience is composed, in my belief, neither mind nor matter, but something more primitive than either. Both mind and matter seem to be composite, and the stuff of which they are compounded lies in a sense between the two, in a sense above them both, like a common ancestor." - Bertrand Russell, the analyst of mind.

The truth is not based on religion.  Religion is something that divides people based on the way they carry out the truth, sort of like languages. "god is one" and "भगवान एक है" clearly means the same thing, the only difference being in the way one speaks.

photo source: lifehack

Talking about the truth, very few people actually understand the meaning of truth. truth is what you believe. if you believe in something, and your belief is stronger than anything in existence, then, being the law of nature, you will get the evidence of it being true. truth exists nowhere but in our own minds. We make decisions based on what we've experienced. We accept the truth based on the knowledge that has been spoon fed to us since we were kids. We have been made to believe in something that we never observed. some people are comfortable with that, some are not. The ones who accept the fact that they know minimal, are the ones who gain the true knowledge about reality.

photo source: Google.

People come into this world. They observe and absorb. They learn about how things work, figure out facts based on which, they carry out their lives. Those facts according to me, is the truth, that can vary from person to person. some facts exists that are called "truth" by people but if i have nothing to do with those facts, i wont consider them as the "truth". Truth for one person maybe a lie for another, as both of them may have different believes. Their believes are based on what they have experienced through out their lives. What one believes, is the only knowledge that's going to help him through his life. Thus said, Truth is what you believe.  

"Every person on earth has the same ability to adapt. If everyone went through the same experiences, there won't be any differences. A person is made from what he's been through. A person makes a decision based on his experiences. People are all the same but each one of them has a uniqueness."

I consider myself lucky to live on a land where our ancestors have done so much for us. Wise men have lived through the time, who based on simple fact "Truth is what you believe", laid down immeasurable knowledge, delivered to us as texts and stuff. All of that knowledge must have been derived from a basic fundamental idea, a primary principal. Our ancestors sort of explained how the life can be lead in the right way by realizing the truth and following it. They give us our ways. And our ways can differ based on regional dissimilarities, as different lands have had different ancestors. But all those ways point towards an ultimate knowledge, just like a tree with its many roots. As i think, cultures are different roots that lead to the one quintessential tree, the same knowledge. With all said, the bottom line is, you have to believe for something to be true. 

late night thoughts.

Never be afraid of doing what you wanna do.

The time when you'll stop giving an f about the consequences and decide to do what you've always wanted, will be the time when you've had enough. And that time will be the most memorable time of your life. Because your life begins to change from the moment you give up your fears and start chasing your dreams.

A thought.

just sayin.

Deciding the next step.

So many times in life people get caught up with options. So many times we have more than one path to choose from. Those stops, where we have to make a choice are the stops where a large amount of negativity enters our mind. "What if we make a bad decision?" "what if this is the wrong path?" "what if I get a dead end?" "what if I'm not successful?" "What if I don't get what I want?" ~ some sick questions we ask ourselves. I have been asking myself the same questions for days now, until i started writing again. Do I really need to worry ? Do we really need to exhaust our minds on questions that do nothing but create more questions? When I decided that I'm going to make this blog my profession, i did expect difficulties but I never really gave a thought to this kind of situation, where my point of interest looses its stability. That's totally human we make mistakes while we're amateurs, but this is what l've learned- You're always gonna attract more and more negativity when you do nothing.

there's an old saying where I'm from. "खाली दिमाग शैतान का घर" ~ on translation, it means, In empty minds resides Satan. You have to keep moving forward. All you need to do is keep moving forward. I've been posting the link of that article in almost all of my blogs now. This made me wonder that everything I say and everything I read tells me to keep moving forward. That's what I've been missing out lately. I stopped moving forward and I let my mind deviate with the negative thoughts. Sometimes it is healthy to let yourself go off balance so that you can learn to face challenges. But life is like a bicycle, you have to keep moving to stay in balance. Just remember that whatever path your walking on, it is the path that you chose for yourself when you were asked to take a decision. So keep walking and keep working hard on it, because its your job to work hard and not to worry about the results. You'll always have choices, You'll have to decide. You make sure that you're smiling when you're trying to decide something.

"there can be either hard work or regret." 

In the toughest situations of life, what causes stress is the question "what am i supposed to do" or "what should i do now". The confusion that prevails is enough to plant a seed of negativity in our minds that we might not be successful, or things might not go as planned.

Tackle that confusion. Don't let the fears haunt you. Realize your options. Go through the consequences and prepare yourself. Keep making decisions and don't stop. Because if you stop making decisions for yourself, you're committing a spiritual suicide. Life is a journey. All you need to do is keep taking a step forward.

As soon as you accept yourself.

As soon as you accept yourself.

• you calm down.
• you don't have to struggle to change something about you.
• you start living with yourselves. You start liking yourselves.
• you realise your gifts. You start admiring your abilities.
• you realise your uniqueness.
• you forgive yourself.
• you stand for yourself.
• you got your own back.
• you start working towards improving your own skills.
• you start upgrading yourself rather than changing yourself.
• you realise your goals better and all of a sudden it becomes easier to work hard.

Deep down we all know what's unique about us, how could we not know, we've been living with that shit throughout our lives. It's the fear of how the world would react, that we're unable to accept what makes us. Here's a thing. Don't tell them. Don't use your words to describe what you are, they won't listen. Use your actions. Do what you wanna do and they'll see. Believe in yourself and they'll believe too.

Keep that thing lighted up in yourself that drives you. They don't need to understand what you're going through. They'll watch you when you shine with your own light.

All you need to do..

Makes sense right ?

During my highschool i had this one of my favorite songs - "the climb". I still get chills when i play it. It makes a lot of sense. Sometimes in life its not about how fast you have to achieve a goal. The only thing that matters is that you are moving. With each step you're getting closer to your goal. No matter how big the step is, its taking you in the right direction.
You may break, you may lose on the short run. But on the longer run, failures are healthy, as the saying goes "to improve you must break yourself".
Just keep moving so that whenever you look back, you always find yourself better than you were. Coz that's what life is.. :)

We are what we repeatedly do.

source: Google.

Epic one!

Laziness can even lead to crearivity.. Took a photo of a pair of headphones and some crazy shit happened. Never knew just a few filters and mirrors could do this..

Introducing myself.. !

I've been frequently imagining myself being asked by somebody "what kind of a person are you?". Its kind of fascinating for me how i wanna answer that question. I am a type of person who doesn't believe in something that people have been believing around him on the basis of the fact that the people before them had exactly the same beliefs. i am a type of person who wants to believe in something on the basis of his own observation.
Now the next question i imagine myself answering too is "what do you think about god?", which is currently my favourite question too. god is... whatever you want it to be. Its the matter of faith. If you believe in something, and that something happens, the reason why your belief turned out to be true, is god. god is a faith inside our hearts, it can not be defined. for a man who believes that god exists in a statue of an idol, and his belief is stronger than anything he can think of, then god is in that statue of the idol. for me the reason his belief works, is god. in my 20 years of life experience what i understood is, i have a heart. Not that blood pumping organ, but the heart that gave me a challenge to write down words to describe it. that heart connects me with the god.
that's all i wanna share right now.. 

To improve, you must break yourself

"This is the point when I don't have a problem being scared. I'm nervous. I feel ok with the heart beat rising up. I breath heavy, but I'm not confused because this is what I want and I'm doing this. I know I could fail; chances are high. As been said, fear is not real but danger is very real; danger of me failing if I don't move forward. But I'm moving forward. I don't settle. Chances are that I might make it and that is for the devil to be afraid of. The devil named fear has been residing inside me, who now i know is scared as he might stop but I won't." - Manish Arora, The Thinking Turtle.

We often consider failure as the stopping point. It's not the failure that decides if you're going to win or not. It's the determination that you're ready to fail again but you can not stop, that decides your win or loss. On a road to reach your goals, you may pause for a while, but you can not stop. It's not in your nature to stop. You always have to keep moving forward. You always have to keep taking a step forward, the basic thing to do. People are afraid to break. They fear failure as if they cant stand up again when they get down. People are often unable to understand the fact that failure is necessary to improve. The human body is gifted with the ability of adaptation. Our body adapts in the environment provided to it.

.

source: Google.

Nobody can deny the fact that when muscle tissues break, they re-develop themselves with greater strength and efficiency so as to be able to handle the load that caused them to fail. Neither can anyone deny the fact that a person becomes mentally stronger every time he goes through a heart break. When your comfort ends and you start to struggle yourself to keep moving forward, facing the difficulty which keeps trying to hold you back, that’s when you develop strength that pushes you to go against the odds. 
When you went through something terrible and you fought, when you faced the discomfort and the pain of failure just before you broke, you created a change in yourself. Don’t be upset that u gave up. Be encouraged that u gave it your best shot before giving up. As you failed trying hard to achieve, you developed yourself and triggered the change in you. You’re body, heart and mind adopted to the situation and grew stronger so that the next time you fight, it is made sure that you fight longer and harder.

The first post

Not really my first post on any blog. I have another blog on tumblr having the same title.
What i frequently think about is creating an identity for myself. Defining the meaning of my presence in this world. Contribution of myself to the world is what i aim in my life..
On this blog i wanna share my thoughts, my experiences with you. I hope you relate them to yourself and i may somehow be of help to you. Hope i develop a nice relationship with you.. :)
My other blog- maniarora.tumbr.com