RunningMusings#1

In general, the running community (or anyone who does regular physical activities) is full of extremely nice people. Usually when you pass someone running in the opposite direction, they give you a smile or greet you with a "Good *insert appropriate greeting based on the time of the day*". Being extremely shy, I don't normally greet first, but have been making a point to return greetings from other people back with a smile. 

However, what is not expected is non-running people just casually greeting as you are running past them. So as I passed a bus today (because it was stationary, and not because I have suddenly acquired superhuman abilities), I was pleasantly surprised when the bus driver gave me a huge smile, a nod and a thumbs-up. I was about 80% done with my run and was struggling to finish, but that positive gesture of "keep up the good work kid" gave me an extra boost to finish strongly. Just a couple of days ago, when I was stretching on a sidewalk, a woman walking past me stopped, wished me a good morning and a good run. And a few weeks ago a man walking his dog saw me and gave me the "you da man" point. Needless to say, I was smiling all throughout the remainder of my run.

It is the little gestures really. It doesn't take much to motivate someone who is trying to do something good. Looking at the positive reinforcement I get from these greetings, I am going to try and be the person who smiles and greets first. Because what would make me extremely happy is being the reason someone was motivated to finish their run strongly and with a smile :) 

"Crush the crush"

I would like to start by apologising for the really sad pun in the title. Could not come up with anything more creative. Also attached below is a disclaimer which anyone reading this should go through before proceeding.

Disclaimer: All incidences and people mentioned in the following post are purely imaginary. Resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

It is not planned. It happens all of a sudden. It gives a huge shock to you and causes your hair to stand on end. No, I am not talking of a natural disaster or any bad news. I am talking about a very natural phenomenon that all introverts like me face many times in their lives. It is the feeling that they get when they have a crush on a girl that they have seen for the first time! There are some things about these crushes that I must mention before beginning. For these introverts, the girl they have a crush on is the most perfect girl possible. They see absolutely no fault in her and there is not a single day that they do not think about her. They imagine all sorts or future stories and probably spend three fourths of their time drooling about her. Another important thing about introverts. They are a storehouse of emotions. They can store many emotional incidences inside themselves without revealing anything out, something that I find remarkable!

Further down in this post, I would like to narrate the general changes that take place in the life of an introvert when he has a crush. 

As I said, it happens all of a sudden. In a school classroom, or a private tution, maybe even a sports ground. He is sitting normally in the class chatting with his friends when suddenly she enters in. And believe it or not, the weird stuff that they show in movies, it actually happens! The time slows down, his heart skips a beat, he has a sudden exponential surge of attraction and for some time, he sees nothing but the girl. She obviously does not have the slightest clue who he is and hence passes almost right through him (if that was physically possible) and sits somewhere in the back. Then what does he do? Nothing. Instead of appreciating how the presence of that girl almost affected his metabolic cycle, he chooses to ignore it. Then he goes back to chatting with his friends with more than half of his mind still on that magical moment.

This is just the beginning. After that, instead of going up to that girl and talking his heart out, he chooses to just sit on his place and stare at her. First, it is general casual glances during lectures, however, they later on transform into serious stares. Sometimes she even catches him looking at her. His heart starts beating at a rate that will pacemakers break! From that moment onwards, he vows to limit his stares to a minimum. Just when he does that, things start getting worse. She ends up being in the same private coaching as he is, she also has the same subjects that he has taken. Exactly the kind of thing that he did not want.

Now he starts seeing her more each day. He even musters the courage to utter a few words to her. He sometimes talks about the syllabus for the test, what books to buy and other "academic" stuff that he obviously has no interest about. "But atleast this is progress", he tells hinself. He finds her very sweet in talking to him. So sweet that he ends up agreeing to like half the things he has no idea of. But does that mean that he is normal when he is around her? Not at all! His heart still skips a beat every damn time she talks to him. His mental senses start going fuzzy whenever he is talking to her. But he still do not utter a word about this feeling and keeps it to himself.

Days go on and he feels that he has "progressed a lot". he sends her a facebook request and she accepts it! He is at the top of the world! Now he spends ninety percent of his online time on her profile. Looking at her photos and seeing the things she likes. Yeah! Just looking. He will not comment on any of them or like them. Because he feels that doing that might "give it away". He start browsing her friends and frown everytime she has wished some boy a happy birthday, or she has liked his photos. He prays that she keeps coming online and when she does, he inadvertently sends a "Hey wassup!" on her chat.

There are sometimes when he is really lucky and she actually replies to one of them.(Heart skips a beat again!) But he chats with her. A lot! That is when he realizes something. He is the king of chats! This is THE place for him! He realizes that when he doesnt have to face the person, he can be very comfortable in talking, ohh well, chatting. Infact he starts chatting so frequently that he gets super impatient. If she replies even some finite time after his chat, he starts feeling restless. "This is definitely something!" He thinks to himself. Again, the important point, TO HIMSELF.

But, as he eventually finds out, one fine day, comes a bomb that makes him go numb again. This time, it is one of his friends talking to him and the friend generally asks , "Hey, you know about ****, the girl from our college, she is going out with that ****! Isnt that hilarious??" He recovers enough to laugh at that and continue the conversation. Inside, he is bursting into flames. Something is erupting, but nothing can be done. Slowly and painfully, the fire inside him dies down till nothing is left. "I am too shy", he silently admits to himself (and AGAIN, as I emphasize, it is to himself!)

So, this is it. This completes his story with the girl. He still continues to visit her profile occasionally and read the forwarded messages that she had sent him. He regrets all those moments when he felt like saying something but did not. But, as it is said, time heals even the deepest scars. Slowly, he starts growing over her. However, this recuperation period can be huge and very painful. All of this without even having an actual date or a break-up! That, my friends, is an introvert for you!

Therefore, what’s the takeaway from this rather boring and elaborate story? Whenever you start getting such feelings, you should do one of two things. First, TRY TO TALK DIRECTLY TO THE GIRL ABOUT THOSE! And if you think that you do not have the balls to do it and will probably never do so, then simply "crush the crush". Just nip it in the bud. Why? Because, face it! Nothing's gonna happen! You will keep on having false hopes about things that are never going to take place. So, you either talk upfront, our live (under false hope) long enough to see yourself being terribly hurt... Because, before you know it, another girl will be coming in your life and you will again waste your time drooling..While this is happening, someone somewhere will be singing "And then it goes back.....and then it goes back!!"

Pessimism- A new form of optimism????

I will try to ignore the blatant fact that i am writing a post more than six months after posting a post. Today, while I sit in a comfortable couch writing this blog, I cant help but think of a state of mind which almost everyone looks down upon, Pessimism .

                                    I have seen many people and friends closely associated with me who keep thinking too negatively and that whose thoughts are never oriented towards a positive outcome. So, when someone is planning a long road trip, instead of asking what are the beautiful landscapes that we will encounter, they will ask questions like "Hey, what if the car breaks down?" or "What if there is no fuel station for miles and we are stuck with no help?"

                   When one of us encounters such a person, we immediately call him a pessimist and say that he can never see the bright side of anything. One close observation however makes something interesting pop out. The person who we just branded a pessimist, is actually thinking on practical lines isn't he? He is taking into account all the worst case scenarios that could happen and is being prepared for them. Once he knows what he is dealing with, he will actually enjoy the trip better knowing that he has taken care of all the safety issues and hence will have no worries in the road trip.


    This brings us into another interesting statement that many of us have heard. "What is the worst that can happen?" Now rings a bell. If a person is looking at the worst thing that can happen, given a situation, he is bound to be a pessimist right? But no! We can now start thinking.... Have we said the same thing in our lives at various occasions? (and we somehow generally tend to consider ourselves as people saying that the glass is half full don't we?)


I will try not to be too vague and unclear at this point. Let me illustrate an example. In high school, a boy has a crush on a girl, but does not have the guts to ask her out. All his school life, he dreams about that girl, but cannot take a step towards her, or speak to her properly. What do his friends tell him? "Dude, ask her out! Whats the worst thing that can happen? She will say no right? That will happen anyway if you don't ask her out at all. So, its better you at least try!"

So what is happening here? The boy's friends are making him realize what the worst situation possible is. Is that pessimism? Of course not! By knowing what the worst situation is, the boy is better prepared to handle anything that comes in his way. So, the friends are making him more optimistic of the situation by making him realize the worst things that can happen to him. 


This is true generally in many situations that occur in our day-to-day life. Many times we will find people looking at a situation in front of them and trying to think the worst thing that can happen to them in that situation. Knowing that, they are mentally prepared to face anything that comes in his way because anything after that is going to be better than what they have already anticipated. This makes them believe they can do it! ( Optimism??)

So, I guess what I am saying is that there is some optimist hidden in every pessimistic statement made by every individual. They are just trying to make themselves mentally stronger by saying aloud the negative things that they can think of, and secretly knowing that the outcome is always going to be better than what they have said. Therefore, next time if you meet a friend (whom you know to be really optimistic otherwise) and ask him about his ongoing studies, don't be surprised if you hear a reply " Mat puch yaar.......Kuch nahi hua...Aisa hi chalta raha to fail ho jaunga!"

Genesis

Where does it come from? This quest... this need to solve life's mysteries for the simplest of questions can never be answered...... Why are we here?
What is the soul? Why do we dream???
Perhaps we would be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. That's not human nature, not the human heart..... That is not why we are here.....

How I wish these words were my original creation....For they perfectly say what I have in my mind...... These phrases, taken from the narration of a famous TV series 'Heroes' ask questions about the man, his existence, his actions etc.......

Ans so, I write, almost 1 month after putting in my first entry. This may seem rather irregular. Why so much of a gap between the 1st and the 2nd post?
Was I too busy? Was there nothing much in going on that I did not feel like writing? Was it that I found blogging very boring and decided to stop just after the 1st post?

Well, the answer to the question is none of the above. It was pure laziness that delayed this second post by such a large amount. Infact, I had thought of the title of this blog (Genesis) a long time ago. It was just the laziness that cause such a delay.


Genesis means creation. It marks the beginning of any process, and this blog marks the beginning of my entry into the blogging world. (The introductory blog does not count!)

This blog marks the beginning of a series of posts to follow. The posts that follow this one, will be based on my thoughts on the various things that I experience around me. They are my way to make an attempt at answering the questions that I asked in the beginning of this blog. They are a way of opening out my views about the world. They are the world as seen from my shoes (or my eyes in a literal sense!) There will be so much to share....so much to think about.....


 Have we just merged ourselves in the endless world of tremendous competition, distrust and infidelity? Are we just blindly following a rat race? Now knowing where the end is.....Not even bothering to stop and ask one another...."Why are we racing in the first place?"

We are a bunch of funny people.....Living in a world which is becoming funnier day by day....And the quest to find the meaning to life has become even more important now.... It is just that we are so busy running.....That we have no time to stop and look at the world....We are so busy trying to reach the moon, that we have don't even notice the beautiful flowers growing in front of us.....
The famous worlds of William Henry Davies immediately strike the mind....


What is this life if full of care.....
We don't have time to stand and stare......

And so, with this, I conclude once again, by quoting the following lines....

This quest... this need to solve life's mysteries..... In the end what does it matter when the human heart can only find meaning in the smallest of moments? These meaningful moments are here... among us... in the shadows, in the light, everywhere. Do they even know yet? Or more importantly, do WE even know yet?

First Blog

Its was shame that despite being an active individual in the growing scope of the internet, I had not yet explored the concept of "blogging"! However, as they say, better late than never, I am trying to enter this area where I would be able to share my thoughts to the entire world....So now, I have made this New Year resolution (which I hope will not go as unresolved as the others!) to start my own blog and open my ideas to the world....I hope to start by using this as a place where I just write and nobody comments...So, for some time, I wont be sharing this url with anyone. Once I get a grasp of what it is like to blog properly, I would like the entire world (especially my friends and acquaintances) to read what I have to say about various things in this amazing world!....
So, I guess this is it....this is my first post which proves to be as vague as our concepts about antimatter....So, will leave it at this point.....

Will write more soon!!!!!

Ishan