A few things blogging has taught me…

“Wait,” you might say. “Isn’t it way too soon for you to learn something from blogging?” Well, absolutely not! I wasn’t a frequent writer before blogging. The only time I did use my writing skills was during school English exams, for our school’s yearly magazine and the lone essay competition. That would mean maybe 10 or so essays PER YEAR. Now, to have 5 or so posts in 2 weeks is a real achievement for me, and a real brain twister. So, here’s what I’ve learnt.

·         You can’t force yourself to write if you’re stuck in a rut, and you don’t know how to continue what you’re writing. In my case, I can force myself to try and write something, but the result will be so stale and tasteless, that I end up deleting the whole thing.

·         K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). ‘Nuff said.

·         I need people to keep giving me…er…how do I put it…”Post Headings”. The good thing about it is, I try to think of how I can write things in a way that it means something to the person who gave me the topic, and make my ideas as clear as possible (though I don’t always think I make it clear enough!).

·         I can’t develop an “original style of writing”. It naturally has to come (maybe I should post on this? Something on “Natural Ability”?).

·         Typing blog posts in advance is a great idea in theory, but highly draining when carried out. There were times when I couldn’t even get the strength to chat with Facebook friends after a long and arduous writing session.

·         Having a large vocabulary is like having a toolbox with all types of fancy stuff to open every screw of every size and shape! It’s fun to use, and they pretty much get you out of the “loss-for-words” syndrome.

·         Don’t write so much. I still have to learn that. ;)

·         God has anointed my writing. May sound a bit strange, but I’ve been facing this strange feeling to put in a Bible verse, or something Jesus said, into what I write. And this Bible verse/thing that Jesus said, comes right on time, right on target and suits the writing very well! It isn’t coming out of compulsion, like “Oh, I’m a Christian, I ought to show it by adding a Bible verse into my writing”. It feels much more like, God knows the problems and the situations I face. He will surely have something to say in this situation.

·         Humour comes spontaneously, or it doesn’t come at all. At least in my case…

·         I actually have a real interest in blogging now, and I hope to pursue it! It’s a creative medium, and it gives me the chance to use a creative medium to have an effect on the people who have genuine appreciation for blogging.

·         Criticism in any form, negative or positive, should be taken seriously and worked upon. Even if someone insults me with “You ******* *******” and what not, I should try to understand why he/she said that, and see if it’s worth working on. And I should make sure that when someone actually does hurt me with criticism, I’d be better off not taking it to heart!

·         More than 50 words: Blog post. Less than 50 words: Facebook status update. ;)

So, here you go peeps. There were a few inside jokes, some honest revelations into my life, and a few ground rules for blogging. Thank you all for reading my blog and offering your comments and suggestions. Keep watching this post!

My Take On…Positive Thinking

Hmm…another post request! If you keep helping me like this by suggesting topics, this blog will surely become very large, very soon! Thank you readers! J

So I was asked to write a post on positive thinking, and I was specifically requested to “build up confidence for the teenage soul”. That’s something nice (even though it sounds like something you see on a Chicken Soup book cover) and worthwhile, using any creative outlet to evoke good feelings in its appreciators. However, there’s no use in giving someone a ‘false hope’. For example, if I told you I’d pick you up from school at 4 and so you’d wait for me without your own vehicle and without money for even a bus ticket, and I never come. I don’t want to give that type of a false hope. What I mean to say is, I badly want to encourage, but I also want that encouragement to be meaningful. More like “realistic optimism”…

So, what is positive thinking?

Just a happy thought? I don’t think so. Will thinking about a Dairy Milk silk give a girl the confidence she needs for life?

And girls think guys are disgusting. Pfft.

No, unless she’s got pure sugar in her bloodstream, and that’s diabetes.

Imagining that you are in a better position than you really are? Well, my English teacher once said that you could become better by “cheating” yourself into thinking you’re something you’re really not. But if that was true, I’d be a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands. And if that were true, you wouldn’t consider me a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, you’d prefer to call me a delusional psychopath! And another thing, if I THOUGHT I was a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, I’d ACT like a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, and I bet I’d be way too proud of my own ability, WHICH DOESN’T EXIST! So that wouldn’t work either…

To me, there are two aspects to positive thinking.

1) Looking at the bright side of things:

“Oh look, it’s raining, now we can’t go out.” “Look at the bright side! We needed the rain after such a hot summer!” “Oh look, now the rain has not stopped for three days and is now a bit of a hindrance to working people.” “Look at the bright side! We could have had a cyclone instead!” “Oh look, the rain was actually due to a cyclone which caused thousands of people to lose their houses and property.” “Look at the bright side! At least they hadn’t lost their life!” “Oh look, the excessive rain from the cyclone has caused a flood and now, countless people have lost their lives.” “Look at the bright si-“ “Oh will you – “

Okay, let’s leave Mr “Bright Side” to his business, and learn what we can. Everything in life has pros and cons. We can’t really say “Hmm, the Samsung© Galaxy Y has 3 flaws, while the Apple© iPhone has 4 flaws, so I’d go with the former.” But, by changing our perspective to focusing on the positivity of life, we can actually enjoy life much more than what we are expected to enjoy. College mess has tasteless food? It’s OK, your teachers are so good you’d skip meals anytime to listen to their lectures. Hate studying maths? It’s OK, you are much more privileged than many other Indians your age to actually get to study maths. My blog boring you? It’s OK, just ask and I’ll show you more interesting ones, heck, I’d even let you write on my blog! No, seriously. Buzz me if you want to do so! I’m getting lazy…

Leaving that aside, what I want to say, is that there are way too many things going in your favour that those going unfavourably. So don’t worry, be happy! Thinking that nothing good is happening in your life is a deadly thought, and it should be “killed” quickly. Besides, you’re completely wrong when you think nothing’s going right! Wanna bet? I would, because I’d always win the bet! :D

2) Faith:

“Belief is a beautiful armour, but it makes for the heaviest sword.” - John Mayer

Yeah, the many faces of one of the greatest modern philosopers...

Words of wisdom (or song lyrics) apart, faith is something I’d just like to call, THE ABSENCE OF DOUBT. Jesus said that all you’d need is faith as tiny as a mustard seed. I used to think that Jesus just simply meant it as a “baseless metaphor”, but now I realise that many of us actually don’t really have that much faith (and I totally went against 2 Timothy 3:16, but we’ll reserve that for another time, shall we? Maybe for a post entitled “The 3 (zillion) mistakes of my life”…hope ChetanBhagat could write that and guest post it for me)! Well, we need faith in our life. We need to believe that things will work out. We need to be sure of things even when everyone else is unsure. A great philosopher, whose name just slipped my mind (more like, completely slipped my mind! Or maybe, never even entered my mind…) said “If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.” Just a teensy weensy bit of faith can take you much further than all your talent, ability, skill, knowledge…in essence, faith can take you much further than you can go.

So, that’s pretty much all I can say about positive thinking (not really, I’ve been asked to shorten my writing, so I’d rather stop). I really enjoyed wrestling with my mind to write this, and I hope this inspires at least one out of the four people who actually read this blog (Fun Fact: All four of them were blackmailed into reading my blog posts!). So, keep smiling, and think positively!

“You can do!” – My Chemistry teacher. The philosopher who considered life similar to a carbon compound.  How? Don't ask me. ;)

My Take on…Jealousy

Hey peeps, so here’s something I’ve been um…well…stirred to post about. This is gonna be the first post of the “My take on…” series. Lemme tell you something about the series first…

What will I post in this series?  Whatever comes to my mind relating to a certain topic. How do you recognize them? It’ll have the heading: My take on…*topic*.  What will I post about the topic in question? Whatever I know, so even if I have absolutely no idea about the topic, I’ll say something. Do I like answering my own questions? Yes, yes I do.

Well, the topic I’ve decided to post on is Jealousy. It just popped up in my head, and I decided to type on it, so well, here goes…

Jealousy is a really tough thing, both for the jealous person and the person whom he/she is jealous of. Who’s the victim? Not one of them, but both. The jealous person however, is in a worse condition. Why do I say that? It’s because the pain a jealous person faces is…self-inflicted.

Imagine dropping a bowling ball…on your foot. You feel more pain because a) It’s a bowling ball, b) Your foot was already supporting your heavy body, c) Your foot might have been crushed and a few bones might have been broken, d) You’re looking like an idiot yelping and howling while jumping on one foot in a bowling alley and e) You’re really angry at yourself for being such a klutz and dropping a bowling ball (of all things) on your foot (of all places)!

Well, a jealous person is just that. Feeling pain because he chose to compare himself and feel that he/she should have been in a better condition than the person he/she is jealous of. There’s hurt, bitterness, anger, hatred, pride, malice and (sometimes) insanity, all tied up in a neat little package and residing in a person’s heart. No wonder it’s branded a sin. And jealous people are similar to insane people (or maybe they actually BECOME insane…I’m no psychiatrist, I can’t say). They choose to hurt people who have done nothing to them. Your friend being a little better off than you, is that wrong? That doesn’t mean God has only blessed him, and not you. God has given different blessings, in equal measure…It’s like you carrying 1 kg sand in a bag, and your friend carrying 1 kg cotton in his bag. Who has a lighter load? Neither, cause both of you are carrying the same 1 kg weight!

Basically, I’d blame the education system. “Why did you score 2^nd rank and let him take 1^st?” I’ve heard that sentence shouted at way too many people. And I’ve seen those 2^nd rankers take it extreme and blame the 1^st rankers for that scolding, and do vile things like steal the 1^st ranker’s textbooks, spoil their name in front of teachers and what not. And the 2^nd rankers become 1^st rankers, and the 1^st rankers now get scolded. I know, vicious cycle. You know how we can break that cycle? SAY NO TO COMPETITION.

I don’t believe in competition. Even God wouldn’t dare to compare us! He loves us all equally, from the worst sinner to the most devoted church pastor! And why do we brand people and make them feel second rate when God says that those people are actually the apple of his eye? (On a side note, God actually says “You are the apple of my eye”. He means it too. Turn to Him because He doesn’t care who you are but loves you anyway.) I wouldn’t dare to do that, to do something God would not. And I feel that jealous people should learn this: You are blessed. Why aspire for something someone else has? God wouldn’t give it to you because He already has something else in mind. And then, you get angry and assume life is unfair, and HATE THAT PERSON. And when you hate someone, you’d like it if he/she was destroyed. And then you proceed to destroy that person through gossip, malice, unkind words, and pure hatred, and all this time, you are destroying your own soul as well. Sad, isn’t it?

Humans were made in the image of God. Just as God only loves people, humans were made only to love other people. Hate is something which is unnatural to humans. When I teach someone how to play guitar, I tell them to keep their fingers curved, and not straight. Why? Because that way, their fingers are in the same position that a newborn baby keeps, and that type of “natural” position is extremely comfortable. And then, the process of playing guitar actually becomes a bit easier as it comes more naturally to the student. So, don’t harbour hatred or grudges, it isn’t natural to us humans as a whole.

So, this is “My Take On…Jealousy”. A bit serious, because jealousy is a serious problem that must be stopped, if we are to develop as humans. And we develop better when we are in a “natural” position, don’t you agree? ;)

The Pressure Cooker Mentality

Hey all, so I decided to write this one post, and then continue writing after coming back from a church camp, so that would have been three days without a post. But I couldn’t complete it, and so I am posting it only after camp ended. I will also post on what I learnt in that camp.Anyway, I was asked by a friend to do a “social commentary” on why people are under pressure to do what they aim to, instead of taking life ‘as it happens’. Deep stuff, but as Albert Einstein said, “If you cannot explain it simply, you have not understood the topic.” And one thing’s for sure, whether I plan it or not, I’m sure that I will handle this topic with God’s views in the picture, because I know for sure that God always has something to say for every situation. So my aims for this post (heck, every post!) are to keep it simple, and say what God says.

So, every human is filled with a desire to succeed (or at least his/her parents are!). Now what I believe is that every “institution” such as school, or college, or an office believes in success as well. So, the heads of these institutions force the people under them, citing the similar goal of “success”, to focus and work efficiently, and so, when the people work well, the institution also prospers. This is how things are normally meant to work.

However, when in 12^th standard, I learnt a law in Chemistry saying “A machine can never be cent per cent efficient.” Then just think, if a machine which was built for work can’t really work all the time, then how can a human be expected to work beyond his capacity, and also be expected to do it perfectly? Seems a little weird to me…

Now, a student or employee is expected to perform infinite amounts of work, at the cost of his life, only in the hope of marks or money, which I don’t believe, are worth losing your soul for. Jesus said that there is no good obtained if you win the whole world and lose your soul! Then, why, at the cost of your social life and your health do you take no limits with your work, just for a little more money or marks? And imagine, even if you get that money or marks, do you really think it’ll make your life better so that you’ll never need anything? I think not!

I’m not saying, “Don’t succeed, you’ll lose your soul” here. What I am saying is that God has a plan for us. And it’s an awesome plan for sure, because God says in Jeremiah 29:11,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

There’s a catch, however. God wants us to trust him, so if we’re going to worry about our life instead of trust in him FULLY, well, let’s just say it’ll be a flop. And if he had the plan for you, I’m sure that a God who doesn’t want us to worry is the same God who’d give us plans not to worry. Why am I talking about worry here? Because, that’s the pressure cooker mentality! Worry is what makes people vexed, put them under pressure and take their soul away. Our God is a God of peace, so when you go by His plans, there’s always peace!

So, what I say is, leave these plans of success to God, and focus on just living life well every day. He will make everything that you need come to pass. I feel that the pressure cooker mentality is something that can be TOTALLY avoided. And the solution is way too simple, just trust God! And he will bring it to pass.

There’s another thing: perfectionism. Highly overrated. Only few people expect themselves to be perfectionists, but everyone is expected to be perfect by others! Think upon this, and you’ll realise that this is a prime reason for student suicides! I used to feel real bad for some students, because they were expected to be perfect. Not just score-good-marks type of perfect, but blameless-beyond-compare perfect! And the day they took 8/10 instead of 10/10 in a tiny class test, they were mercilessly torn apart by their teacher’s and parents’ harsh words. Now I can’t blame teachers and parents (they wouldn’t blame themselves either, they’ll say “We’re steering our children towards perfection”, but they have authority and mean well, so we’ll forgive them, OK?) , so what I think we’d better do is just realise that no one can be perfect, that position was reserved for God. But God wants us to be like him, and what he means is that we still be happy with a 10/10, an 8/10 or even 0/10! So, what I’d say is aim for perfection, but don’t be bothered by anything that happens and displays your imperfection. Any criticism that you get, whether negative or positive, is for your good, and can be used for developing yourself.

So, the ‘pressure cooker’ mentality (driving yourself to a limit, where after that much pressure, you can do nothing else, but ‘explode’) is something that can actually be easily avoided. Instead of being overwhelmed by your tasks and terrors, remember that God has given you that task, and has also given you EVERYTHING YOU NEED to complete that very task. So, turn to God for strength, and he will readily offer it to you. Why does this ‘pressure cooker mentality’ occur? Because, as humans, we attempt to ‘take charge of our problem’, and instead, flunk and falter foolishly. God wants us to give that problem COMPLETELY over to him, and he will just tell you what to do. All you have to do is give the little that he does completely, and he will work wonders for you.

That’s my two cents on this topic, and worry in general. Hope I’ve at least been able to put up a satisfactory post, as I was given this idea from my friend! :)

And one more thing, my friend Manish has also started a blog, its http://whatevercanpopup.blogspot.in/. So please read it, he’s a very interesting person, and his blog also is bound to have the same allure of wackiness with a good dose of ‘readability’ (not sure if it’s a word, but hey! Spell Check didn’t highlight it!). I promise to update frequently as well, because ideas just keep coming from everywhere! So, see you till the next post!

If you want to read what I think of something, feel free to tell me on Facebook! And I’ll get to you at the earliest.

Story of my Ears

Hmm…kinda crazy post I’ve got here…I’m not really sure of whether anyone can actually relate to me on what I’m gonna post. Basically, I play guitar (a bit) and I’m passionate about it (a lot). Because nothing can make you cry and go on your knees better than a squeal from an electric guitar, right? Just kidding there, electric guitar squeals don’t really sound that good, they remind people of the sound their cat made when it got run over by a car. And, THAT’S why they cry and go on their knees. So to all you electric guitarists out there, this is a moment of truth. ;)

OK, back to my story. So I started getting super serious about playing guitar in my 10^th grade (nice time isn’t it? What with public exams and all), and I began to take to playing the guitar with a frenzy. I had my guitar with me and walked with it all around the house and what not. While watching TV, I tried to play back the music of every commercial and tried to figure out how to play those songs which were in my computer and had been lying unnoticed until that point of time. To sum up, I was fascinated by the fact that what I heard, could be relayed to my hands and reproduced on my guitar. At first I was near hopeless, but soon, I started getting better, and it was mostly because TV commercials get telecasted pretty often (if they didn’t repeat, I’d have still been struggling with the Tiger Biscuit jingle!).

So, my ears were learning to figure out different things like what sounded good, what sounded bad, how a C chord would sound if played on another instrument and now, I am actually able to figure out chords just by hearing songs now! Very useful things, and especially when playing music live, it makes co-operation with the singer and other musicians a whole lot easier!

However, since I was a guitarist, and guitarists mostly care for their instrument (the snobs!), I was only easily able to figure out guitar parts! I couldn’t even figure out how the lyrics of the song went. So if you asked me how Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple goes, I wouldn’t sing “We’d all come down to Montreal…” I’d sing “Tan TanTaaaan, Tan TanTanTaaan, Tan TanTaaaan, TaaanTaaaan” and air guitar to every “taan”. Yeah, pathetic (Fun Fact: I had to search for the song on my computer and play it a few times to actually get the lyrics, so yeah, still pathetic.).

But, our church has a live band playing every Sunday, so I got to learn how each instrument played. I actually said to my ears, “Ears, today, you have to listen to what the keyboards are playing on the second song” and listened hard and carefully. This was tough, but I worked real hard at it, and now it went to a season where someone could ask me what instruments were used in Smoke on the Water, and I’d say, “Oh, a guitar with an overdrive tone, a bass, drums (obviously) and an organ.” (Fun Fact: The organ was connected to a Marshall© guitar amplifier and that was why the organ sounded “funkier” on the song (Fun Fact: I didn’t hear and figure that out, I read it on some website, so trust me, I’m no pro.).)

Ok, now you’d think I’m pretty equipped aurally. But no, another problem came up. I couldn’t hear music properly anymore! All I heard was a guitar with an overdrive tone, a bass, drums and an organ (through a Marshall© guitar amp by the way)…”Well what is the problem with that?” you might ask. Now, all I heard was a few instruments playing together and not actual music. Sad, isn’t it? I couldn’t even make myself listen to the music as a whole because I trained myself to pay close attention to detail. At that time of my life, I finally found out what music actually meant, and realised that music was not just a combination of instruments, but a combination of instruments WORKING TOGETHER.

You see, the problem with too many beginner bands is that the musicians don’t listen to each other. The singer sings at his highest pitch, the guitarist wails to his own tempo, the bass player treats the rest of the band as HIS backup, and the drummer pounds those drums with all his might without caring who follows him. Then, they wonder why it doesn’t sound good, and they do silly stuff like saying “The guitarist is the weak link because he only did 1^st grade theory while we all did 3^rd grade, so let’s chuck him out of the band”, and end up throwing away a guitarist unfairly when everyone else also deserved to be thrown away. Music however, occurs when these musicians are playing AS A SINGLE, COHESIVE UNIT. That’s what makes certain music bands sound great, because they are all playing together, and following each other. Every note is hit at the same time, and it has much more power than extremely skilled musicians who don’t cooperate with each other.

Recently, I got a chance to play guitar for my church VBS (a week long program for kids). I was filling in for Joshua Satya, a really amazing guitarist who had to go to Bangalore for a show. So the pastors gave me a chance in his absence and I got to play. I got to play with some really cool(er) musicians and all I did was cooperate with them. The music actually went pretty well. Of course, there were flops, but we somehow sorted them out in the course of the music. Well, I had this big speaker next to me in which I heard most of the instruments, and myself. Then, I truly realised! I’m actually not someone who is just playing a guitar, but I’m actually contributing to the music! So, I decided to contribute, by working closely with the other musicians, especially the drummer. And the music actually felt fun to play, and it was fun to be playing music for God, and worshipping God with that music, and seeing the kids worshipping with that music. All because I decided to contribute to the music, instead of stand out (Fun Fact: Basically most beginner musicians just think of standing out, that’s why the singer, guitarist, bass player and drummer from the previous paragraph were playing like that).

So now I realised so many things about music, and now I can hear music anyway I want. Hearing the music as a whole, paying attention closely to detail, hearing only the guitar part, and now as a bonus, I can even listen to the song only for vocals! And it’s really interesting. Now I can listen to the same song a million different ways, and learn something new each time.

And that, my friends, is the story of my ears. How they developed from nothing, to my most required tool for my passion. And a word of advice for people out there, don’t listen to music at high volumes, and don’t purchase those in-ear headsets, they aren’t good for the ears, and you’ll be too busy trying to keep those suckers fixed on your ears than listening to actual music. Yeah, sorry, I really feel uncomfortable about ending a post on the topic, off-topic is MUCH more comfortable. But to keep it back on topic: if you follow these rules, your ears will also have a nice story to say.

Protect your ears!

In the beginning…

Imagine an idea. Imagine an idea as a person...

You could choose to abort the idea when still in the womb, but instead, you let it be born…when born, it is still frail, still weak, unable to walk, or talk…only surviving because you lovingly let it survive, and as a baby becomes the primary focus of its parents, the idea becomes your primary focus. Then, the idea becomes bigger, grows stronger, reinforced by your thoughts, your whims and fancies, and becomes something tangible, something you can feel.

Then, as it stays alive, it sees you. It becomes something like you, AND something you like. Just as a child takes to its parents, and becomes someone they truly love. The idea is rooted within you, and will flourish, as long as you feed it. And feeding a child is a well-known thing. But feeding an idea? Well, by discussing it, thinking and pondering over it, sometimes brooding over it, taking it to people who have had a similar idea and acquiring their counsel, you “feed” this idea. It becomes bigger and bigger, but is still powerless. But, why?

Well, no matter how much you feed a child, it wouldn’t amount to anything, unless you MOULD it. Work on bringing it up. Sweat at this task of raising it up, in the hope of seeing your idea amount to something big. And this idea, will grow up, just like a beautiful person who has the power to impact the lives of the people who see it.

And this, my friends, is how my blog was born.A frail and feeble idea in the back of my head, now a webpage which can be seen by anyone with internet access. I hope it inspires you, as it serves as a record of what has inspired and continues to inspire me.

You might have found this blog in many ways, most probably because I spammed your Facebook profile asking you to see this blog post. My humble request to you is to please keep visiting this blog, as I will be updating it A LOT more than my Facebook status. I am open to your suggestions, criticisms, and insults as well, and I promise you (well, those that know me a bit well at least) that I will make the blog interactive and interesting, and catering a bit to you. So if there are topics you’d like me to sound off on, posts which you want me to make a sequel for, or just plain shut up, I will do it for sure. Just contact me...

So, thanks a lot for actually reading this (even though that starting was a bit too much)! Hope this blog goes well, by God’s grace, and for God’s glory!