I was Inspired to follow my Dreams!!!

I really took time to understand my real dream. Sounds stupid…right!! But this is the fact. Till I understood what’s my dream is I was only misunderstanding the same till that day.

Having born in an orthodox family where the “wishes of girls are normally given less importance” everything appeared good to me became my dreams. That included dance, music sports or education. Some were fulfilled and some were not.

Some dreams came true after much struggle. I had to fight a lot with my own family members to fulfill my dream of acquiring higher educations. Some dreams never fulfilled like “dream to become a doctor or engineers”.

Then my dream to be a career woman fulfilled. But then remain as a career woman never fulfilled. What I mean to say is …there were so many “Yes and No” in the path of my dreams. I could never understand why things are happening that way. Why can’t I hold good things to remain in my life? Why every time I feel like I’m back to oblivion?? I used to wonder!!!

Few years back…when I had to take decision to quit my job, it really acted in a very negative way in my life. Initially with the thought of “Okay…it was a compulsion” I was pacifying myself but gradually it became insufficient. I felt like as if I’m a “lost identity” soul.

In my surrounding, it was nothing something new. So everybody said…it happens that way only. But inside me already there was a void. I was almost de- motivated and frustrated.

One fine morning…My door bell rang. As I opened the door…I saw a lady (around 60 years) smiling at me. She was my new neighbor shifted just before few days. I had the exchange of smiles with her; even I had asked her if she needed anything. They were elderly couple…after retirement; they had purchased the flat adjacent to mine.

I welcomed her and asked her to get inside and seat. Then I asked her if she would like to have tea….that’s how we sat together for the first time.

After a brief chit chat...I was surprised when she directly asked me

Tina…do you have any problem?? You can share with me.

No Aunty!! But why are you asking?

I can read through you…she said. Hum aise hi budhe nahin hue hai…she said in a very loving voice.

I didn’t say her anything that day. But gradually we became not just good neighbors but we became very good friends.

Aunty was very jovial. She had a life of that of a working woman...before her retirement. Her only daughter was settled in USA. Uncle was a gazette officer. 

While talking with her, I don’t know when I shared everything to her.

One day she told me…you are with the wrong dreams. Actually not even dreams at all. You just wanted to acquire materialistic things for which you have always trailed the path which might not had a long way. Needs and dreams are two different things. Whatever you need, gradually it will come to you…but you have to find your dreams.You should find the Purpose of your life...something that gives you maximum pleasure. Something that defines your presence in this planet. That is your dream.

I felt very absurd. What the Hell…philosophical dialogues!!!But I didn’t say anything.

But she used to talk in that line only. After that I stopped discussing such topics whenever possible. 

After several days I had to open the door as the bell rang. I saw a lady ( who looked as that of a slum dweller) with her two little children was inquiring about Aunty.
Aunty might have not been there at home.She would finish all her house works and would go out whenever it was possible. As i told her....the lady left.

In the evening, Aunty Came, I told her about the lady and her two children. Then curiously asked her “Who were they??”

I was surprised to know that part of the Auntie’s life. After retirement, she had started teaching underprivileged children in some slum areas. Not only that, she used to counsel many slum ladies about their health, parenting and other such women issues. She would also teach them about hygiene, cleanliness...etc.I mean she had her own way of living her life.

Later I came to know that she was a highly diabetic (insulin injection has to be taken daily), gone through “By-pass” surgery once and had severe knee pain problems. But I don’t know where she got that energy to travel and help whom she could help.

I understood what she wanted to say. Perhaps I never understood why I had to struggle in my life. There is always a reason behind everything. I had to struggle so that I can understand the pain of those who are struggling or yet to struggle and do something for them.

This piece of wisdom came from her…She made me realize what my dream should be.

I remembered...When I used to struggle to convince my family members to finance me for higher education, I always had a feeling that “There should be an organization which would help the students to have education”. Something which would not see any marks or score or family background but simply help them financially. I always wanted that. A student's wish to study whatever he/she wants to study should be fulfilled. there shouldn't be financial obstacle for it.

Perhaps for the first time I discovered “the real dream of mine” i.e. I want to help those who struggle to get education.
Looking at Aunty… I was so much inspired that I started teaching some students who couldn’t afford tuition that time.

But after few days…I had to shift to a different place. There it was not that possible. But whatever was possible with me I used to do that. I mean...helping out with books and other stationary if I found someone. Sometime I used to convince some other ladies to share and join me distributing things to those. I would help out clearing some lessons to my maid's children...etc. But i know these are not sufficient at all. I think many of us do the same. But a small part of my dream is getting fulfilled...I'm delighted for that. 

I don't know if I can ever make an organization through which I can help those who struggle to get education...but

Aunty always says…whatever possible by you…does that. And keep doing and find out  something by which you can fulfill the purpose of your existence….!! 
I mean nothing could be more to inspire me than this!!!

I was inspired to follow my dreams...since then!!!On the way only I have just found my passion for writing...but my dream is to have something to help those who struggle for education!!! 

(I don’t know why people neglect old people!! They are so much experienced that we can really have all our problems solved if we have a “Wisdom Club” around us. Their experiences of life are indispensable! Everybody should realize that. They share their wisdom happily and free of cost but we perhaps don't know the preciousness)  

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Non – Writer to a Writer and Finally a Blogger – For Me the Journey Itself is a Celebration!!!

I swear, I had never thought of (not even in my wildest dream) writing this one, about how I #CelebrateBlogging 

Forget about Writing or Blogging, I was one of those who never took an extra paper in the examinations throughout my academic years. During exams, In exam halls my friends and all other students used to say “Sir, Paper” or “Madam, Paper” I used to wonder a lot!

Yeh log itna kya likhte hain…mera to sabkuch pahele jitna paper sheet mila tha ushi mein ho gaya…I really used to say to myself. Sometime I used to feel bad about it also.

Again I was the one who would always leave “the essay writing part” in every language papers be it in English, Odia (My mother Tongue) or Hindi.  And you know what “Long answer type questions” were my biggest enemies in every subject. It was not because I was bad in learning or memorizing them but I was very slow in writing. So even if I knew answers I used to find it difficult to write it. So I used to find ways to shorten the answers…I mean making long sentences small…etc. some writing tricks - You know - which would help me. And it was working also because I used to score good marks. Maybe that’s the reason I was a bright kid even though I had writing problems.

So writing was never my strength. However I don’t know when I started reading books.  Since my childhood I have always been an avid reader. My favorite past time was only reading books.  That’s the reason perhaps by my early teens I was quite fair in reading all kinds of books...I mean Novels, Thrillers, fictions or Non-Fictions…everything.

The only kind of writing I used to like was “Noting down things in my dairy  that I used to feel good about while reading books, magazine…etc” I have quite a lot of dairies where one will find many thing collected over the years.

Like any other academically bright student, my dream was also to become a doctor or an engineer. However destiny had some other plans. I became a student of Chemistry. In my college days there were so many extracurricular activities were conducted. Once there was an Essay Competition in English and the Topic was “Democracy is not suited to Genius of Indian People” which was declared an hour before. I had an essay book where the same topic was there. So I felt let me read it and take part in the competition.

I was with the pen and paper inside the classroom.

OH!!! My Good God!!! Let me tell you honestly…I couldn’t recall a word I had read in that essay book.

I was supposed to leave it blank…when the invigilator looked at me and perhaps understood my situation. Then he said…write whatever you feel like. I know you can do it.

Student Union Elections had just completed before then in our College. Few days before that I had gone to an election Rally by OUR Ex PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.  So I started writing what I felt about elections.

You know what…I stood second in it. My HOD (Head Of The Department)  said me that had my vocabulary been strong, with that idea I would have bagged first.

That was the first achievement of my writing skill that also taught me Originality always speaks best about your idea.  That motivated me the most. I took part in many competitions after that and got some success also.

Those days I was preparing for various Banking Examinations as well as Civil services. I used read many magazines particularly “CSR – Competition Success Review” for current affairs. One day I saw an ESSAY Contest in CSR. I wrote on it and stood First Runners up. My photo was printed in it and you can understand the euphoric world I was in!!!

In 2005 in Super Brain Super Personality contests in CSR…When I won “Miss Intellectual of the Month” in CSR and my Essay was published in it….maybe that was the final point when I realized that “I can write”.

But after that I joined a job in a private sector bank and I was really doing fantastic in it. Life was cool. But for a family compulsion I had to leave that job at the pick of my career.

De-motivated, frustrated…I again tried to find solace in Books.

That was the time also…when I tried to write my views in various things that used to affect me or appeal me in my dairy.

While surfing net, I used to log in into every site…to see if they have a platform to share my views. Wherever it was possible I used to share my opinion as comments.

One fine day I landed in an Online News/Media portal. I wrote few articles in that regarding women issue. However I was frightened by the trolls in it and I stopped writing in it.

Then I landed in Speaking Tree – a free spiritual blogging site of Times of India.

That was something life changing.  I realized “I find maximum peace of Mind when I write”. Writing became a kind of stress buster for me.

In the mean time A Friend asked me to have a “BLOG” of my own in blogger. I searched for it and years back I had this blog registered in my name but never wrote anything in it.

Someone said me about “Blogadda” as well. I signed in it perhaps two years back but I never knew “how to get connected with it with my write ups”

In May 2015, one fine day (I may say coincidentally or destiny has its own way of doing things) I tried “trial and error method” to participate in a contest. (Do I need to say that I’m little less techno savvy?)

OMG!! Everything was right The Blog was approved!! That’s how I stepped into the Blogging World.

Let me say the best thing that actually attracted my eyes to have an account with Blogadda was WOW- Write Over Weekend activity. I can’t say the kind of Happiness I get with every WOW badge!! I simply love it like anything!!

  

It was just over few weeks of my association with Blogadda when participated in the #LiveLodgycal contest with Renault in association with BlogAdda to get a chance to be a part of the #LiveLodgycal Drive in Goa.

And to my utter surprise I was one among the five winners.

Fully excited!! Top of the world!! Perhaps “A beginners Luck” you can say. But that actually changed my total prospective about blogging.

Since then “Blogging has become itself a Celebration for me”. It’s not only about writing only but finding new truths, new friends, new trends, new lessons to be learnt and new wisdom to be fathomed with every passing day.

After that every post became a celebration for me. Every comment became a celebration. Each vote made me dance. Each new friend made me feel special.

 It also made me land into the world of some awesome bloggers and their ideas. As I read their blogs, it made me feel “what I was missing out to read all these years!!”.

Let me say you…while reading the other bloggers ideas and posts, I really found answers to too many of my “unspoken questions” as well. I never knew…it’s the “OCEAN OF WISDOM” in the virtual world. Some of them were so much penetrating into my mind that they changed my out dated prospective about many things as well.

Then the regular communication with Blogadda…I must say Team Blogadda treats every blogger with utmost specialty and sincerity.  I guess… No one can match this art!! I simply love it!!

Happiness, new things, new ideas, new friends, new excitements…what else. A complete world in itself. What should I call it?? A festival…right!!!

Like everyone, my life also has been a roller coaster ride. I didn’t know when I had stepped into the path that destiny had fixed for me….WRITING AND BLOGGING. I don’t know what more exciting things I am going to unravel in future!!! I’m at a point…totally clueless about the destination of this journey…and I’m really delighted about it.

But as I look back the path I trailed so far…The journey has been a Celebration in Itself. At a regular hiatus, with lovely goodies of happiness and gifts of wisdom, Destiny has asserted itself every time that “Tina…You are In the Right Path…I guess!!!” That makes me feel yes #IAmABlogger

Though I never believed it, but my journey as a Writer or a Blogger so far I feel best defined by the words of wisdom…”It’s not the Destination but the Journey that matters most” 

“I am writing for #WIN15 – BlogAdda’s Blog Awards on how to #CelebrateBlogging! You should too!”

Inspiration Is Within...!!

I often wonder:

What makes the floating toad to become a hopping frog?

Who paints that rainbow in the hazy and raining sky?

What makes glowworm shine in the night?

And helps the caterpillar to become a beautiful butter-fly

Who inspires the crawling child to stand?

 Even if it falls again and again?

What makes the sparrow built its razed nest?

Even if the storm destroyed it yet again

Is it the wonder of nature or just some natural phenomena?

Like Metamorphosis or dispersion of light in rain

I feel it’s the inner spark that exist in everything

Which defines that Inspiration is within!!

Lonely moment’s of desperate times

When everything goes awful and wrong

It seems as if a zilch everywhere that rhymes

No matter how we claim sturdy and strong

Failure, break up or illness of health

Bullied, broken or loss of wealth

Tumbling down… at a point just before success

Leaves us in dark, wrecked, robbed of strengths

It leaves you feel like that of a Leafless Tree

That has gone bald if not broken with a stroke of Storm

Living becomes a challenge, Let alone prosperity

That shatters all hope to follow Life and its norm

That’s the time when you must look within

To listen to the heartbeats and whispers of vein

The resonance of inhaled air that you breathe

To find that magic flash to illumine the Life again

It’s in the nature of your shadow…you know

To leave you alone in the time of dark

As its existence is due to light around you

And it’s just not aware of your inside spark

Life is often like that of a WELL

That might have swollen with the blessings of Rain

When its existence is challenged in the summer

It looks for the “Underground Water” as inspiration

Leaves come out from the balding tree

As that of Shoots come out of a seed

Life becomes a beautiful rainbow again

With the ribbons of beams of shine within

It’s not what’s before you or what’s after you matters

That defines the terms of any Life’s event

“It’s what’s within you” only matters in the verve

To define the course of the chapters of your life

  

Life is a gift, but Living is an art

Like any creativity pursuit and its quest

At times it needs some motivation and drive

That’s propelled by the Inspiration within us… to strive

Life is like painting a rainbow in the dark

With the collage of different happenings

The colors and shades comes from the source inside

As the glow and radiance of Inspiration is within!! 

This post is featured in WOW- Write Over Weekend By Blogadda 

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

MY BEST TEACHER...LIFE!

Chubby Chicks, Dimple Chin

Rosy lips, Teethes within

Curly Hair, Very Fair

Eyes are Blue, Lovely two

Teacher’s Pet...Is that you?

YES… YES… YES!!!

In the last line of the above rhyme…definitely all of us assert the word YES, because at some time of our life we have been a Pet student of our teacher…no matter which subject was it…isn’t it??

Whether we had or not those chubby chicks or Rosy lips…etc but we surely at some point of our life had been blessed with that extra care of a Teachers as a favorite student. Perhaps everybody has some one called “My Favorite Teacher” or “Best Teacher in my Life”.

The relation of a teacher and a student start as a “stranger” but eventually they write a life of legacy together. A teacher not only teaches us the skill that is essential to sustain life but also guide us to deal with our weaknesses, understand our strengths and find out our true potential.

I think in the movie “The Karate Kid”….the relation between a Teacher (Mr.Han) and a Student (Dre Parker) has been best depicted. I always feel …Yes!! That’s the relation!!!

However the real lessons of the life aren’t those that we learn in the classroom but out of it when we venture out in the institution called Life….!!

Life is the greatest institution where Life is the best teacher. The ability to take decision in adverse situation, the aptitude to handle failure, the wisdom to learn from mistakes and experiences or the talent to manage relations with our friends and relatives, the gift to endure pain and loss  etc…all these vital skills are needed in Life. We learn all these talents while we become a Student of Life.  And who teaches us all these skills??  It’s no one but LIFE.

In the above movie, the protagonist “Xian Dre” at last wins the battle in the ring by a “Cobra Technique” that he had learnt himself…!! No teacher had ever taught him that!!

What does it mean?? The urge to learn that extra bent comes from Life itself. It’s propelled by Life only!!

A Teacher’s teachings while help you to sustain the Fight of the life, its LIFE’s teaching helps you to win the battle!!!

A Teacher Trains You while Life – as a Teacher Transforms You!!!

So For me LIFE is always the best teacher because it teaches you to learn that extra competency and expertise to excel in the biggest university called LIFE…!!!

Dear Life…I appreciate you always!! Thank You for Being the Best Teacher in my Life!!!

Being an academically bright kid and also being active in other co-curricular activities, it’s a blessing for me that I have been a pet student of my teachers throughout my academic years.

In fact sometime it was not just subject teachers or stream lecturers. For example, in college days, I was Favorite to many lecturers’ of Commerce or Arts even if I was a student of Chemistry.

From days of “Chalk and slate” to handling computers or Test tubes and spirits lamps at labs…my life has always been pampered by the blessings of those Teachers who always wanted me to have a smooth, happy and frictionless life. Whatever today I’m…I owe myself to them. I always feel grateful to them and never forget to show my gratitude to Almighty for his Grace to bless me Wonderful Teacher’s in my Life!!!

Happy Teacher’s Day!!

I SEARCHED FOR A LAND ABSENCE OF SOUND…

I searched for a land Absence of Sound

To have a cool and quite state of mind

I looked for it in every journey outside my world

To free myself burying my stress, pain and aches?

My endeavor failed and I was done with my journey

Forget the noise; I was filled with some more agony

Then I heard a faint voice coming from within

“To embark an inward cruise” in the midst of cacophony

I trailed that undefined path following that call

I landed in that soil the terrain of my “Soul”

Something miraculous happened to me in split of seconds

With the sudden “glimpse” of that five lettered word “PEACE”

As I stumbled upon PEACE within myself, I learnt

You can never find it anywhere except your heart

They said it rightly:

Detach yourself for at least two minutes or so

To travel beyond the Time and Space

To reach your soul inside your heart,

In the blissful world of Sweet Silence!
To experience that magical PEACE!!!

Its my poem For the Prompt in IndiSpire #My2MinutePoem By Aditya Agarwal in Indiblogger