CHOOSE

I started re-reading this today!

Random Extract:

EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY,
CHOOSE!

Choose to do the right thing, the tough thing - not the familiar, easy thing.
Choose the way of the warrior or the way of the coward.
Make your choice out of love instead of fear.
Choose from the heart.
Choose to live fully, not to sleepwalk through your life.
Choose to respond with the way you really feel, not the way you're supposed to feel.
Choose the mineral water over the soda; choose the lemon juice and olive oil over the blue cheese; choose the walk in the park over the ride to the mall.
Choose simplicity over extravagance.
Choose conversation over the television.
Choose to talk things out rather than stew in your anger overnight.
Choose compassion and generosity.
Choose to smile instead of frown.
Make your own choices in your own time and choose to stick with them.

-Rachel Snyder. 

Focusing Energy

We're only young once.

Then again, I suppose you could stay young till you die.

Depends on how you see things.

If you see it the second way, the till-you-die way, then I suppose your energies are focused rightly to begin with.

If not, what are you wasting your energy, or to give you the benefit of the doubt, focusing your energy on?

(I have to say that, although I might be dishing out benefits of doubts, I'm really none the wiser about where my energy is being wasted or correctly focused. 

Ok! Actually, to be fair, I WAS none the wiser. 

The introspective wardrobe, I've adorned myself with over the past few weeks, had a bit of a role to play in the change of tense.)

The apparent conclusion, after some collaborative situational analysis (with trusted, like-minded, equally introspective forces of nature), seems to be that for now, for our approximate age-group (plus-minus ten years.. ok maybe not minus!...) the right attitude is a selfish one.

Now don't be shocked and start recommending shrinks!

I don't mean selfish to the extent of converting yourself to a sour, cold rock that is bound to be extradited by society overall! 

I mean selfish to the extent of making sure you're investing enough time in developing who you are and what you want to be! 

If not now and always, then when? When you're older and dead?

Channeling energy into things you love doing and want to achieve has got to be more gratifying than spending it on pointless fretting over changes in relationships and insignificant events in the past! 

(Again, I'm just guessing here!)

But of course, it's obvious anyone would want to be able to reap the returns of energy put into anything.

It's about being able to recognize when you're putting in more than you're getting back;

and having the strength to say, 'enough!'.

It doesn't matter how badly your energy tries to convince you that there's enough of it to keep giving where there's no getting, it's important to remember that you don't want to be many years down the line looking back and thinking, 'well, that was a waste of my time!'

If anything is true, it's that the heart can always see rightly. (Read The Little Prince!)

Even if you're not out there wasting your energy on un-watched displays of whatever, your heart always knows what you want and how you feel, even if the objects of your wasted energy do not.

So, in the spirit of some righteous selfishness, its ok to stop. In fact, it's better.

(These are all assumptions and deductions. Don't take my word for anything. I'm simply thinking through my fingers here!)

But I was good at theorems!

I have to suddenly abort this post now, or I could ramble on, endlessly!

I'll just say.

Stop wasting. Start focusing!

(If you want! :))

I'm going to try.

I found a picture titled "Rise of the Radiant Goddess" with Google Images!
Of course I had to use it! *rolls eyes*!

I'm back!

"Hold your own. Know your name. And go your own way."

Over the past few months I've touched down in four Indian states.
Eaten all kinds of weird new things; including a surprise bite into a brinjal, just when I was beginning to forget what the wretched things tasted like.
I've been paid for my services. Services that actually got sent to be executed on construction sites in Gujarat and Maharashtra! =O
I've discovered more new music and movies than ever before and have completely fallen in love with things I'd never even paid any attention to earlier.
(Yes, I'm being annoyingly vague and non-descriptive, I know. But, I'm feeling lazy.)
I've met so many new people. So many of whom were about as similar to me as red apples are to  purple erasers! And I've discovered the joy of the anxious excitement in bonding with and getting to know people and things so far removed from my own place in the world.
I honestly believe that if you're willing to keep an open, willing-to-learn mind and an accepting attitude (even to things you aren't used to), you'd be able to find love and friendship in almost anyone. 
You'd even be able to make a home wherever you are. Of course it could never compare to your actual home, but it would suffice to keep you going.
If there's one thing working in an office environment taught me, it's 
not to judge a book by it's cover. Never. Don't do it. Because you can't.
Whatever preconceived notions you choose to come up with, if you give people a chance, they'll surprise you.
In good ways and bad.
I've come to realize how extremely unimportant things I've prioritized in the past really are.
I'm also suddenly acutely aware of the fact that, when it comes to my future, I don't know anything for certain.
Except maybe that, because I love to travel, I will never stop.
I'm finally upon the last 6 months of a 5 year painfully splendid journey through a bachelors in Architecture.
After this, the world in my playground. I could do, for the first time in a long time, pretty much anything!
I've never been more afraid of a bloody playground!
But, there's still 6 months of a sheltered student life to go before that. 
So to jumbo sized thesis projects and whatnot... I'm back yo! Come n' get me. 


Ok. On second thought, 
hold on.
I'm coming to get YOU.

Update.

So, it's been a long blogging hiatus...
I have to admit, I really miss it.
But, a lot has been going down in the life of me.
I talked about 2011 being full of change earlier.
Who knew, I had no idea what I was talking about. =)
Change! And HOW!

What's important though, is that everything's good.
In fact everything's great.
Life and I surprise myself regularly these days.
And I'd love to go into details but time limits at net cafe's and a lack of the right number of words so as not to sound like a rambler, don't help.

So, until I have a regular net connection again and blogging is more convenient,
I leave you with happy thoughts and an anticipation for everything.
Stay cool.
La.

Just another emotional blogpost

This is my "listen to when sad" song.

I guess I am a little sad today.
I hate Goodbyes... That's why it's always "I'll see you later" with me.
This probably sounds over-dramatic for people who are used to travelling and being away from home...
I'm down with long gaps of travelling,
but, being away from home? Say for instance, work or education?
That's completely new.

I know for a fact I'm only going to be gone a few months. And we all know how time flies!
It's the possibility of so many other things changing at the same time that has me all shaken up inside.
I know that what I return to in a few months will not be exactly what I left behind.
I know that while some "I'll see you later"s will only last till I get back, others are indefinite.

We're at the biggest crossroad we've had to face to date, all our lights a-blazing and engines roaring to go. Just waiting for our respective signals to change. (Admit it, I have a way with these corny metaphors.)
Here's to stepping out of comfort zones or, as I'd like to look at it, expanding them.
May whatever it is to come, at least, make for some good photographs and writing.

Having said all that,
PUNE! I LOVE YOU!