You cannot fool yourself !

Well if anyone knows yourself , it has to be you !
You know your every thought , every action , every jealousy ,every fantasy !
Everything you wanted the outer world to know not ; is known by you ! There is no pretense prejudice or put up behavior to impress,when its a question of you being your own judge !You can give excuses for your failures or glorify your own success to the outer world, but you know it all what goes behind !You don't need to think twice before saying anything to yourself !You can absolutely be yourself with yourself ! You know what coward you are, when world lauds your courage You know your strengths ,even if world ridicules them as your weaknesses !You can perfectly criticise yourself without tending to demoralization You can pat your back, when u internally know its a Job well done !You cant glorify nor demean yourself in your own mind !You can escape from anywhere but not from yourself !Many a time its this beautiful self of ours ,from whom we run away from ! Coz we cant stand its simple judgment !
On the contrary I would say ~
If ever you find the whole world against you , but this yourself with you !
this yourself in all its simplicity sans the forced attempts to manipulate it
Be rest assured that you are right and will win !
Coz the whole world can be fooled but, You cant fool yourself !

Why are we Humans Different ?

One of the fundamental law of nature is the Law of equilibrium and stability.

Everything in nature tries to be in a state of equilibrium or a state in which it is most stable.

It applies to everything ...from electrons at sub atomic level , to stars @ universal levels !

One handle excess energy in oneself , that excess energy excites us and prompts us to do something so that we can do away with this energy.In humans .....this doesn't apply so aptly.It apparently applies but theres a twist in it ,which makes us different.In our normal lives also we want to live in conditions which are most stable. the stable situation which I say are various ..........mental , social , physical. All of us want to earn a lot of money so that gives us , financial stability. A good character , family etc gives social stability .Having all your parts in working condition gives us physical stability.[My examples for stability may be crude ; but if they make the point clear I wont waste time finding more apt examples] But the twist in the tale comes that humans want to have this stability but they get Bored by it ! There is a constant urge to do something more and seek higher level of stability . Indeed this urge is in all constituents of the nature not only humans but the different is Human try to attain higher level of stability on self initiative !! this is one of the gifts of God I must say , where did this self initiative come from no body knows ,or why is it there , no body knows ?! For example A tiger wont kill another deer if his stomach is full, but human well, he would kill everything in sight and keep it in cold storage for use tomorrow ! Do we call this greed or urge ? A good question . I wouldn't call it greed , greed can be seen in animals also ! but humans its different ! So what is it ? What I am trying to describe here is the fundamental thing which breaks us loose from eat, sleep, reproduce cycle of life followed by all other species on this earth ! If reasoning and logical thinking is the father of exponential evolution of humans as a specie then this urge is definitely the mother ! Another important implication of this urge comes forth if this urge remains inactive for long time ! Put in simple words , I am talking of BOREDOM ! Dogs and Cats never get bored lying around why ? Simple there is no urge to find out higher levels of stability on self initiative in these species ! My friend Pratik had effectively put this human urge in simple words like " Be Happy with What you have .....and still want more !" I am interested in the latter part of the quote coz the 1st part of the sentence deals with contentment with your present ! The "..... Still want more " is what drives us !
Its this beautiful coming together of this urge and the ever reciprocation of the logical thinking and reasoning to the demands put forth by this urge which laid down the path of making us unique and the most dominant specie on this planet ! Either one of them missing meant we would be either be busy sharpening the most perfect stone tools or urged for centrally heated caves ,as we sat freezing before the fire !

Challenge the basic parameters !

I have been working on this thought ever since , I read an articles in TOI where C.K.Prahlad spoke on the very same issue with regards to Tata nano ! In todays world everyone is concerned with pace ! Fast technological updates keep coming on after the other as Globally people compete each other to reach the optimum level of efficiency in given set parameters ! But in a given set of parameters theres a limit to the efficiency U can reach and also the competetion is hardcoz everybody knows whats to be done !
We are so concerned with the betterment in given set of parameters that we tend to forget why are we working inside the given parameters ! Agreed that conventional parameters and limitation are developed in the long run through experience, but u cant deny that bending them is impossible !
After all the philosphy we follow is of trying to find a golden mean , but while finding the golden mean we unconsiously do tend to get equally away from every extremes !
My point is, sometimes these parameters can be challenged and a system can be developed after taking one extreme ! I will ellaborate with the example of tata nano ! While making the Nano - The basic parameter challenged was Price ! Making a 1 L INR car was outta Q for majority of the car makers arnd the world ! But Tata motors decided to challenge this basic parameter and rest is history ! This car is sure to be a success coz 1 L is really affordable forthe middle class people who dont want the excellent suspensions and engines which takes u 0 - 100kmph in 10 secs ! what they want is just a ' Car ' which only Tata can give them !

8:08 ChaShiT Fast - An amazing routine !

Well ChaShiT is Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus for those of you , who havent got the shit beaten outta yourself by travelling in this beauty!
It rumbles down the platform 4 of Thane, half emtpy ( some crazy maniacs have the brains to board it in Kalwa carshed - God Curse them !) and stands patiently till its pounded by people ! People who have their asses on fire and believe that the 1st class cushioned seat is some sort of water pool ! Damn ! Well My ass is never on fire ! So me and Aditya prefer completing the Jigsaw puzzle of the lobby of the train by manuvering our bodies to best possibly fit in the space remaining ! Its actually a test of flexibility or rigidity ! If ur body fails to be at any of this extreme conditions then be warned that when U get down, U wud be having more body parts sore than not !
The Jigsaw puzzle comprises of amazing people of amazing dimensions , drenched in amazing amount of sweat ! These pieces of Jigsaw come in variety wid a variety of expressions and body language ! Some are 'I m too high class for this crowd' , some ' keep of me U slime' , some ' smiling intelligently' , some 'smilling dumbly', some ' yet to be awake' ! Then before the trains starts U will have egoistic advisory yells of starting the fan , then curses wid a dash of " Ma... Bhen ...." when fan refuses to start followed by more egoistic attempts to start it ! Finally some resort to handerchieves givng the characteristic huffs and puffs to cool off !
Finally the motorman gets bored of platform 4. and train begins its ardous journey packed to capacity ! Then the real fun starts as the groups of people start discussing private, professional , local , national and international issues each with equal ease !! Each one with his own suggestions makes the debate hotter and better ! U can ocassionally here a" Arey Salla Reliance kay padla kaal " or " Ya Bhaiyyanna .... " or "Kal tya Big Boss madhye Rahul ne ......" and loads of such varied shit ! The Ocassional scuffle between 2 hot heads is a enjoyable event. Its a rare phenomena but when it happens , U will be taken to higher plane of imaginative swears ! FInally some mature guy ends the deal with a " Jane de ..kiske mooh lag raha hain ...." !yet to see a physical showdown those happen in 2nd class ! ahh well ! U gain some u loose some in 1st class !
Sometimes I feel 2nd class is a better place to be , coz a mistaken elbow hit is graciously forgiven there or otherwise it all goes down to survival instinct , but in 1st class U have to face strght faced hypocrites who will swear under their breadth and give u those " Pata nahi kahaan kahaan se chale ate hain " looks making u feel " Are gaali dena toh mooh pe bol " ! Train reaches Mulund and its a case of " Lemme get in U bastard or I will pull U down " countered by internal shouts " Bho******* He mulundwalle salle nako tevha nako tevdhya sankhet yetat" or sometimes a more direct " Phekun dya yanna baher " ! The train stops and u get a 15 sec interval to quickly readjust urself and the aching body parts to the more intensive packing!
Mulund sometime brings in companions of people already in train who brings a pack of samosas or Bhajji which is shared equally among all widout giving a damn to the hygine ! again the debates and group discussions start wid additonal opinions ! ! Suddenly U can have a couple of " Aur fir usne Unki ......... " followed by " Bho Bhe Bha or Ma " and then a group suddenly goes " HAHAHAHAHH " followed by swears again " HAHAHAH " till finally the N2O in their body ends !
Then comes ghatkopar ! silver haired , baldy , sherwani clad , bussinessmen wid golden specs holding a briefcase in 1 hand and 2 mobiles in the other enter the compartment and all of a sudden the " .....Che ........ Che........ che " increases ! ocassional one such guy may step on your feet and say " Ae Bhai thoda Adjust kar ne " and you feel like replying in the same gujju tone dat U cant, but yet u try!! Believe me U cant fight the guy wid sucha tone ! Well the thoda Adjusted journey continues and finally its Kurla time !!! haah ! U utilise the last ounce of energy in ur body to wriggle out frm the adjusted situation and get down at Kurla ! Phew !
Check your wallet and mobile , straighten ur "akade hue " bones and move on !
For those of you who are interested about what happens beyond Kurla please meet me on Platform 4 arnd 8:05 am on weekdays and I would happily introduce you to this beauty of 8:08 !

In Transition !

Times flies by as I stand in transition ............. ! I can see it everywhere ! Damn it , I am already an adult ! Childhood is done with ! Kyunki Saas Bhi kabhi bahu thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar ki have stopped telecasting their social malfunctionings !! Anil Kumble is gone , So has Sourav left the field forever! Its over 7 years since the WTC have been destroyed, 7 years ? SHIT ! I remember it like it was yesterday!! America has destroyed Afganisthan and Iraq! saddam hussein is dead! So if Benazir Bhutto! Pervez Musharraf is no more the Pak chief ! George Bush completed 8 year ,Putin is gone So is Tony Blair! Even Manmohan Singh has completed his 1st term !! Bombs have stopped affecting me or my conscience ! Terrorism is boring and a mundane routine , it seems to have been accepted by people as a part of life !! CDs which use to store a lottt in 2000 have been replaced by DVD which by blue ray ? not yet !phew !I laugh at my 6 yr old electronic diary which says it can store 200 Nos. wid a memory of 256 KB !! Hehe ! I remember mobile phones loosing their antenas for the 1st time and those elite phone which even had a quarter megapixel cam , now I hold a 5mp camera which is also a mobile ! I remember flat screen TVs as a revolution today the whole tv is flat !! Does anybody have a casette player or a walkman ?! ipod rules ! I stand in motion as I experience the silent velocity of this ever accelerating world enjoying the new trendz and challenges in a completely dynamic and ever changing environment !!

Viviktesh

My name Viviktesh has intrigued every person who has heard it ! Some found it funny , some amazing , some weird but all of them have commonly found it unique ! I have never met another Viviktesh yet and dont think so will ever meet ! So being the sole bearer of this name I guess its my sole duty to be proud of it and let people know what it actually means !
Viviktesh is derived from basic word vivikta which comes from the 28th stotra of the Vishnu sahasranam adding a -ish ( meaning God of ) completes my name vivikt + ish = Viviktesh

The following is the 28th stotra :-

Vrushahi vrushabho vishnur vrushaparva vrushodarah
Vardhano vardhamanascha viviktah shruti-sagarah ..28
Vrushahi: Vrusha means dharma or merit.
Vrushabho: One who showers on the devotees all that they pray for.
Vishnur: One who pervades everything.
Vrushaparva: One who has given as steps (Parvas), observances of the nature of Dharma, to those who want to attain the supreme state.
Vrushodarah: One whose abdomen showers offspring.
Vardhamanascha: One who multiplies in the form of the universe.
Viviktah: One who is untouched and unaffected.
Shruti-sagarah: One to whom all the shruti or Vedic words and sentences flow.

Viviktah means the untouched and unaffected . untouched and unaffected by what U may ask .....well everything ! it means I can stay in water without getting wet or in the desert without being thirsty though these physical interpretation are hyperbol the meaning that my name conveys is be even in every situation be it positive or negetive one should be even ! It suggests that U dont need to go to himalay to practice penance in search of enlightenment, U can very well be a part of this material world enjoys its share of happy and sad moments and yet be detached as u search for that ultimate truth ! this calming evenness has been often described
in various forms like 'vidya vinayen shobhate' as in ' knowledge looks beautiful with modesty' . The great scholar who knows everything yet is quite even about it because he knows something
which makes him even more aware of how unaware he is ! Being Vivikt doesnt mean U leave everything and be detached , it goes beyond that to tell u be with everything yet be your own ! This is where your greatness is !
Being vivikt is being the beautiful lotus that grows in the puddle of mud yet has no enemity with the mud ! So as such being Vivikt is way to difficult than to give up everything and go for the truth ! For being Vivikt one needs extreme amount of self control and awareness of the fact that evrything is maya ! Hindu mythology elegantly explains the concept of maya - It begins from what the Vedic people use to worship the ' Ekam Sat' - The single truth a.k.a advaitam which splits into 2 things atman and brahmam ! atman is you and brahmam is the rest of the universe
the manifestation of brahma into reality is maya which the aham percieves as distinct entity ! but the true enlightenment of the atman is in knowing that maya is false and that the brahma is no different from him and he is not diffrent from brahman ! Essentially ' Aham Brahmasmi , brahmaeyva aham asmi ' [ I m the universe , Universe is me ] and when the atman being aware of this fact unites and flows in harmony with the Brahma to be the ekam Sat again ! U have the true enlightened enitity , who doesnt find any diffrence in happiness or sorrow and just exists on the higher plane being vivikt of the maya !
Well thats what this unique 9 lettered word , which is often misread , misprinted , mispronounced is all about ! Glad to know you found it of interest to read about it ! coz I definitely had fun 1st knowing , understanding and realising it ! I am pretty thankful to my parents who chose such a wonderful name for me ! Now it remains to be seen , being aware of everything can this viviktesh be the VIVIKTESH in his journey of life !

Credit Crunch ,Venture capital, Value of money in hand !!

Well 6:30 pm on Last day to get my pass for Govandi Station with the concession form in my hand , A pass worth 690 bucks and Rs.680 in my wallet { Including all the Chuttas and Chillars} times are seldom so desperate ! Option 1: I go the next day ......I have to slug it out with a government employee who is least interested in helping me ; rather who derives fun seeing me caught helplessly in the technicalities of date and time ! Option 2: I forget the concession form I have to shell out a good 1200 odd Rs. ! Option 3 : I ask aditya to lend me a 10 Rs. which I promised to return by paying for rickshaw the next day !
I took the 3rd option and well by 6:45 I had brand new quarterly pass to Govandi in my hand !! Eureka !!

As all the pumped up adrenaline abt what to do and what not to ends .....my mind began to think
that note of Rs. 10 was worth Rs. 10 to aditya but for me it was much much much more than that !
That note saved me a argument wid the government employee , it saved me the mentlal tension of not having my pass and standing in que the next day , It saved me from the murderous 2nd class compartment on the morning of monday going to Kurla !!! man It was well worth 1000 bucks for me and this aint a hyperbole !

I realised why having 10 bucks in ur hand is worth a 100 in ur bank account ! Well unfortunate as I was I didnt have them so Aditya came to my rescue ......but had there been no aditya !!!
Damn I cud have given anybody 20 bucks the next day for giving me 10 today !!! thats when I realised I was ready to take a loan @ 100% interest dat too on a daily basis ! I guess thats the type of people on whom these Venture capitalist survive giving loans @ 30% interest !!! DAMN ! Thanx God for the lessons in economics and Maharashtra Education board please try and rope in such practical examples !!

Self Awareness !

I dont know, whether you people have experienced it but theres this very strange experience of mine. At times when I look into the mirror looking at myself and keep looking at myself more than I normally would ,it strikes me as a very pleasent sense of awareness that the person in front of me is me !! That face ,the body its mine 100 % of it ! I exist and I m in full control of myself !

Its very rarely that u look at yourself so intently , we always look in the mirror for just to check on the odd shabbiness of hair or some cosmetic appearance of that sort ! but we hardly see ourselves as a person in mirror and there I sincerely think we miss something ! its not the face thats important , I dunno but I sort of feel that u get a brief vision into urself as a person when u stare at urself in the mirror or for that matter even ur photograph !

This self awareness gives me a kind of kick for doing something as in I feel like I m in more control of myself and can do whatever I want! I get to know myself as a 3rd person and thats excellent for bringing out self corrections ! U actually kno urself more than anybody could possibly know u but in the course of time U take it for granted and stop evaluating urself as a person and tend to get pushed around and swayed by the surrounding events ! U tend to loose the awareness of ur being !

If U can cultivate this habit of being aware of urself as person , U automatically end up

being more matured , refiend and focussed person ! and basically enjoy the feeling that U exist
and are able ! Able to do the most non thought of things in this world cause you are present !!!

Natures's Selection

Nothing is permanent except change itself !
If U cant change , U have to perish. Nature is an amazing self enriching machine , which has extreme intolerance toward it's non performing and stagnant elements. All such elements perish in course of time. those which do not perish , evolve !
You have gotta accept this, to exist is a competition. A continuous and tiring competition. But you have to compete. Its an amazing mechanism. Nature does'nt improve you. It employs a novel technique where in it has put in you an inbuilt desire to survive and it goes on making the situation to survive tougher! So that u improve. As u improve , U enrich the nature itself ! The ones who cannot improve perish !!
In nature there is no subsidy or rebate or concession for the weaker section who cant compete. Its hard and ruthless. Its the most ultimate competition of your life were in the winner gets to survive!
Its sort of hard on us ...coz the prize of the contest you are competing is that u can compete further.But thats the essence of life I guess ! The prize of this competion called life is the sheer joy of competing - living. Each day you survive this competition , you know that you are a better living being just because U have survived more. I guess precisely thats why we respect our elders. They have indeed survived here for a long time. The question arises why shud I survive , is there any aim of surviving ?
This is a very bold , but I claim. The Ultimate aim of life is to survive. The journey itself is the reward. You enrich the nature by surviving becoz the more u survive the more u evolve , more u evolve. Nature has more evolved living creature.

Happiness

It was my final pre University english Oral exams. We were told to get prepared for an extempore! I had no problems with the extempore being my schools champ. So I was at my creative best saturated with ideas of How to floor the professor with my On the spot thinking.
So it came I was asked abt my idea of happiness and to start off by defining it, well the definition of something as abstract as happiness, I didnt knew what to say. So I started with whatever I could cojure up and I defined it as follows, "Happiness is that elevated state of my Mind in which it craves to be in perpetually and every endavoer of mine is directed to be in the same". beleive me it was instantaneous and everything went fine after that.
After getting home, I thot over the definition and I liked its succintness .I felt really good by the time I digested it that I could so aptly define something as abstract as happiness in just 2 lines So after that a lot of thot has gone into the concept before making this blog entry.
My good friend Pratik Bhide had once said while having a discussion that Happiness is not same for everyone. Hitler got happiness in killing the Jews and Sachin Tendulkar got happiness the Ball for a Six. That prompted me to think more two very diverse things yet both implied happiness for the individuals! And tendulkar am sure wouldnt be happy killing the jews or hitler content by hitting the ball for a Six ! So I think a person is happy when he is in a particular elevated state of mind and diffrent things take him into this state!
Having once been in this excited state , we develop a crave to be in it again and again ! coz yeah the state of mind is really great to be in ! and this crave for it makes us work towards it. So then every action of our body is in that direction to achieve that state again. YEs the intensity of this craves varies directly wid the difference between the excited state U have experienced to the normal state u r in already. U can define a abstract happiness scale , where 0[zero] can be defined as your normal state and say something like eating my favourite piece of choclate gives me 10 units of happiness. Its difficult to quantisize happiness but this was done just for example !
U can caliberate your own scale likewise !
So there you have it , plot this happiness of urs Vs. time on co-ordinate axis and u can have your very own self monitor of how have u been living. evertime u go in the negetive side of the axis the crave to be on the positive side increases. Enough of Statistics and graphs.
I read in Buddhist literature abt trishna. This Trishna { desire } is the same as My crave for
higher level of excitation. Gautam Buddha gave a excellent philosophy wherein he says Drop this trishna and U could do away wid all ur sorrows. I have a innovative thots here which I would ellaborate furthur down as you read. I think buddha is wrongly interpreted when its said that
Dont have trishna { crave } for doing away wid the sorrow. Buddha preached a much more Matured concept where I guess He wanted us to be control of our own trishna rather than doing away with it. Crave for achieving something is the basic driving force which has brough us this far , people would find themselves at wits end if suddenly one day they found they didnt crave for anything more, Try and imagine it yourself. I would give a example and disturb your imagination. But would'nt that be great ?Everyone is content with evrything, no wars , no fights , no greed no Boredom too coz U absolutely dont desire anything. This is what they called the Moksha ! At absolute peace with one self ! Absence of crave abt every physical and material happiness is Moksha itself, U trascend the normal human driving force and dont need it no more as u look down to what u have been doing and feel peace!
But Nature has its own ways. In this world of 6 billion people only 3 to 4 people would be such .
Rest all like you and me live enjoying This small excitation of physical happiness ! And thats perfectly allright ! Coz nature itself wouldnt allow everyone to be in Moksha ....coz Function of the nature would stop ! Nature keeps balancing this graph of your life . So each day you find your avg graph to be above the X-axis !Thank the nature !