“Like” thoughts attract each other

I was gifted with two self-help books by my sister on my last birthday. She was one among the very few people who knew that i had profound interest in picking up books of such kind and reading them. I came across an interesting idea which the author shared in this book. She said “Positive thoughts attract more positive thoughts.” This may be in contradiction with the famous laws of attraction we study in physics. But she certainly had strong reasoning behind what she stated in her book.
When a person says something to himself, his mind searches for thoughts that support his idea.
Tell yourself : “You are an exceptional cricketer”. Your mind searches for every possible reason to support this particular statement.
Tell yourself : “You are no good in studies.” Your mind digs out all the failures you had in your academics in the past to support your statement.
This is strange but still is very true. When we think of something positive, our mind attracts many more positive thoughts. When we think of something negative, we will have many negative thoughts crowded in our mind supporting the former thought. This justifies the statement “We are what our thoughts make us”. Gaining control over what we think requires a lot of practice and focus. Once a person aces this particular process, he finds what he wants.
This seemed like a very powerful insight to me and i felt the need to share it.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

More than two months had passed since i came to Hyderabad and started working in a start-up company. The atmosphere here is exactly what i had envisioned before i took up the decision to work in a company like this. I really love the energy with which people work here and how they find fun in what they are doing. I should consider myself fortunate enough to be associated with such a brilliant team. “It’s all about working with people whom you love” says one of the founding partners here. This statement moved me a lot and helped me understand how great teams are formed.

Few days back, i was in a dilemma (when i got an offer to stay @DeepRedInk and lead the tech space ) whether to continue working here and be part of a budding organization or leave to TCS next year. And then, i asked myself one question : “Where do I want to see myself 10 years from now ?".

- A question that i had first come across during our training and placement classes in our college. And frankly speaking, i had no answer for this particular question. In a generation where almost every guy/girl i come across is certain about what he/she wants to do after graduation, i was one among the very few who were confused.

Management has been one of my cardinal interest’s from a long time. But then, i also have profound interest in software development. Being part of an organization which enables me to contribute towards the development of next generation apps certainly is exciting. It provides me with the dual benefits of learning and professional growth. But then, i was really not sure about what i should take up. I was completely confused whether to prepare for CAT or GRE. Every area in IT field interests me. So i told myself not to go for an MS until a time when i am sure about the area in which i want to do research. MBA right after BTech, would be like studying management science subject for 4 more semesters and enjoying the riddance of education after that. And i see no point in doing it, as i am in no hurry what so ever to complete my education.So, i was left with only one option – work for a company and discover what i want to do.

I had come across many people who felt that my decision was wrong. All my uncle’s asked me to get into a PG course as soon as possible. But then, i kept telling myself to follow what i strongly believe in. There is no point in blaming some person ten years from now, if at all i end up doing what he/she wants me to do and be a tired employee who no longer enjoys his work. I don’t want to blame some guy who told me do something, when i feel dissatisfied and tired of my profession.

And so my answer to this question is “10 years from now, i want to be happy and peaceful.”

20 years from now?

“I want to be happy and peaceful”.

There was a point when earning money seemed everything in life. But when i ask myself “What’s the whole point in being the richest man in the graveyard ?”, the idea of earning lots of money and living a luxurious life seemed foolish and equally stupid.

Reminiscence

I had a bad sleep last night and woke up early in the morning to drive my dad to railway station. Whenever this happens, I suffer from severe headache. I tried my best to recover, which included listening to soothing numbers, sipping cup of hot tea and at last some medication. Three hours passed, but nothing seemed to work out for me. More importantly my headache was getting worse. Meanwhile I heard few noises outside my house. I felt irritated and ran out of the front door in anger. When you have a bad headache, even a small noise will naturally spice the headache up.

When I gazed from the porch I saw few young children playing cricket. So, there is this young kid taking guard. Another guy took a long run up and bowled the first ball. The batsman was bowled.

The kid then said “Dude, this is trial ball. I am not out.”

The bowler looked even more furious and agitated than what Shoab Akhtar would look like when the umpire gives a decision in favor of the batsman. But then he had to go back to bowl the next delivery.

Suddenly, I remembered the days when I played cricket along with my best buddies in the park constructed by revenue department of Visakhapatnam in our colony.

It was hot summer and the heat was scorching back then. Round about 12 noon, one can witness eagles roaming in the sky.I was wearing red T-Shirt that day and my friend Harsha was bowling to me. And I was caught and bowled the first ball.

So this was my statement immediately after I got out -- “Dude, I am not ready. And I really thought that this was the trial ball.” [I really don’t remember in what sense I made such a statement, but I was really embarrassed to give up my batting after the first ball. I was so desperate to bat all day.]

Harsha was furious. He had to do something to pull my leg. He said, dude Murthy, you see the eagles up in the sky? They don’t like red colour. They will fly down and put a hole in your head with their sharp noses.

I was scared. Although what he said makes no sense at all, I was scared to death. We were 11-13 year old kids with eyes filled with innocence. And then, I cried badly. Harsha and another friend of mine were laughing so hard. I dint have a damn clue about what was going through their minds. But then I had to continue my batting with lots of fear in my heart about the eagles.

Whenever I stepped on to the front foot, I used to stop abruptly seeing some guy gazing at the sky in astonishment. Whenever an eagle was flying down, I ran back to the shade under a tree nearby. This went on for the next 30 minutes. Eventually when I was told by my friend that Harsha was playing a prank, I was on angry him. And then I and my partner put up a partnership of 64 runs. I was so angry at that point of time and I had hit each and every ball hard to vent my anger. That took me to my best score 42 * on that ground [:P].

Later we stopped the match abruptly as we were reprimanded by our parents for playing in the sun till 2 PM without coming home for lunch. [Matched abandoned due to parents intervention: P]

All of a sudden I witnessed myself standing on the porch with an unusual grin on my face. To my surprise I am no longer suffering from any headache. May be the sweet memories that filled up my mind for the past few minutes took the headache away with them. And the next minute, I was down with the kids and had fun with them on road. I even clicked few pics while they were playing cricket. The kids were ecstatic when they saw their photos and I felt even more excited when I saw the happiness and excitement in their faces.

If someone reminded me about those incidents back then, I used to feel embarrassed and equally pissed off. But now, it feels really good when someone digs those incidents from the past. Thanks to those sweet memories, I felt far better than what I had felt about an hour earlier.

Strange summer

Not even a single morning is passing by without me waking up and checking my email. I am desperately waiting for my current employer [TCS] to send me my call letter with a joining date. Sources say that it is going to be very late compared to other companies. And so my wait continues.

This summer has been strange for several reasons. I enjoyed this summer by spending most of my time with my school friends. I will say, without any hesitancy what so ever, that this is the best summer I had till date. Each meet we guys have leaves me with many parting queries. No doubt I enjoyed every single meet to the core, but then I am left with this strange feeling when I return home.

“You cannot fare well in gully cricket and call yourself Sachin.”

It is only when we compete at a higher level, we come to know our true potential and get a chance to improve ourselves. The importance of widening one’s gaze, graduating from a top notch university and socializing is something that these meets taught me. And while all these thoughts were playing in my mind, I still laughed my ass off with my friends and had a great time with them. I don’t know if my contemplation regarding these issues is sounding insane. I don’t think that I am standing out to be the perfect example for the proverb “An idle brain is devils workshop” Or I m I?

I would like to end this right here. I know it’s abrupt. But even my mind has nothing to share beyond this. I don’t know if this is peer pressure. But this is my current state of mind !!!