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Silence and the World

May 23, 2020 | Life | 2 Comments

I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
– Chaim Potok, The Chosen

Even before you start reading this, I will ask you to do one little thing. Switch off all devices producing any form of sound if you can, and try to stay in absolute silence for a few seconds. Put away the device you’re reading this on and just listen… listen to the silence.

Intriguing, right? Did you just realize that there are so many sounds around us on a daily basis, and yet, we fail to listen to them? The truth is, there can never be absolute silence, at least not as long as life exists. Silence is somewhat related to darkness, neither of them exists of its own. You might be wondering “Eh, what? but darkness exists, if I go out of my home at 2 am, it is dark around”. Well, darkness is not an entity on its own. It’s just the absence of illumination. Same is the concept with silence, it is the absence of any sound, melody or noise. By now, you must be wondering what is the point of this post, like, what am I even trying to tell you through silence?

You see, in our course of life, our brain gets trained to hear those sounds only which we need, like the ring of your smartphone, the horn of a vehicle, human communications, etc. But apart from these sounds, there are millions of other sounds around us, which, although we hear, our brain doesn’t perceive them as to our brain, those sounds are not of much importance. And this is where mother nature hides her beauty. Just cut off all non-natural sources of sound and you will be left with this unexplored set of sounds around. Now, try to listen to them one by one, try to observe them. These sounds… these are the sounds of life around you.

You love to listen to music, right? A great composer, John Cage, had composed one of the greatest musical creations, 4’33” (pronounced as Four minutes, thirty-three seconds). Now, music is about notes… a sequence of notes synced together in harmony to soothe the ears of the listener. But this composition is formed from absolutely nothing. Yeah, that’s right, it has no sound in it. It is just silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. This composition was premiered at Maverick Concert Hall, which is an open concert hall, meaning that it’s right in the middle of nature with no walls. So, the audience sat there and for all those minutes and seconds, they did hear the greatest symphony ever – the symphony of nature. Birds chirping around, the rustling of leaves, the breaking of branches when a squirrel walked over it, and such.

Another advantage of silence is that it makes you realize your self. When there is silence, there is no noise to distract your brain. Thus, you can use your full concentration. Now, if you start looking for answers to any thought in this state, your entire concentration is spent on looking for that one answer. And when you start finding answers about your self, you start discovering your self. An Anechoic Chamber can practically teach you the importance of your own heartbeat. For those of you who don’t know, an Anechoic Chamber is a specially designed chamber with foam wedged walls that reduces echo to the maximum, in here you can get almost absolute silence. Now, if you spend some time in such a chamber, with a total absence of sound, your mind will gradually start shifting towards the lower decibel perception. It will keep getting lower and lower to a point when you can hear your own heartbeat and also the blood flowing through the arteries. Now, just imagine the situation, you’re in a dark room, hearing your own heartbeat only. This very moment, this very lub-dub brings the essence of being alive!

Never miss a good chance to shut up!
– Will Rogers

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By Sayan Kundu

Happiness

March 14, 2020 | Life | No Comments

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness… a single word that we all chase after. But only few gets it. Why is that? Why can’t we all be happy? What is causing us depression? What is the reason for all those long hours of crying at 2 A.M? The answer to all of these questions is nothing but our understanding.

What primarily makes us lose our happiness is worrying. Worrying about anything – be it your studies, job, relationships. The thing is, uncertainty about the future will always prevail. And this uncertainty is the very foundation of worries. If there is something you can do about the stuff that is worrying you, then why are you even worrying about it… You can simply do what’s needed to be done. But, if there is nothing you can do about it, then also, why are you worrying? You can’t change it, it’s not under your control.

Do you have a problem in life? No? Then why worry?
Do you have a problem in life? Yes? Can you do something about it? Yes? Then why worry?
Do you have a problem in life? Yes? Can you do something about it? No? Then why worry?
– Gaur Gopal Das

Remember our childhood? We were all so happy and jubilant? How come we were happy then, but today, we can’t be happy? We are the same human beings, we have the same skin, the same lungs, the same brain. Then, why can’t we enjoy our every breath? Life was simple back then, we knew little and thus we had to care for very few things. As we grow up, information is forcibly fed into our minds, it becomes congested. All those information’s, they bring up new questions. Questions like, will my friends like my dress? will I get the job? And with these questions, we begin to doubt our selves. We doubt our self morale, our self-beliefs. And that is where depression sets in. We try so much to make ourselves perfect for the other, but the reality is, perfection does not exist. What we think is perfection is merely our interpretation of perfection. No matter how hard you try, it’s a fact that you will never be perfect! Nobody is! So, stop chasing perfection, and start following purity. It does not matter if your friends like the dress or not, you bought it because you liked it, and you liked it because you wanted to wear it. So, go on, wear the dress! If your friends are really your friends, a simple dress won’t make them leave! And trust me, out of the 7.5 billion people, there will surely be one who will just absolutely love your dress! Don’t ever underestimate your own value! You are your most precious jewel! Don’t let anyone hold you down. Don’t ask who will help you, ask who will stop you from achieving what you want!

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
– Dr. Seuss

There is a saying “Fake it till you make it!” Follow that! It takes only 21 days to change any habit. Just for 21 days, pretend you’re happy! And trust me, after that period, you’ll just forget that you’re pretending! You don’t have much control over the outside world. But on the inside, you are the supreme ruler! If something is amiss in the mental world, fix that first! First, achieve mental peace! Then you will automatically start seeing the world with a better viewpoint! It doesn’t matter what age you are, it is always okay to be yourself, that childish your self! Go out to the park! Play with the children, you’ll see the real joy in their eyes! Talk with the aged people, understand them, help them! They have already had their rough chapters in this world! Help them to achieve happiness! And trust me, they will share that with you!

Just because you are happy, it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.
– Bob Marley

You see what you think! Stop thinking about all the negative sides! Look at the brighter optimistic side! There are always two ways to view something, one, the pessimistic approach, which will depress your mind, mentally force you down; and the other is the optimistic way, which will open an entire world of open happiness to you! Don’t look at the dark clouds in the thunderstorm, look at the rainbow following it! The answer to the question “How to be happy” is already inside us, we just don’t make the effort to find it. Make that effort! Understand yourself! Understand what you like and what not! Because only after you have understood your self, you can look forward to understanding the world.

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By Sayan Kundu

To Love

May 12, 2019 | Love, Romance | 6 Comments

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
– William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

What is Love? feeling? emotion? reaction? Turns out, it’s something more than what that one word can signify.

It’s not something that you can distinguish from the other feelings you get in your daily life, yet, once it sets in, it will make you each day a blissful paradise. But, it’s not a feeling for sure, since feelings change over time, but once you start truly loving someone, that never changes.

Love is not a temporary feeling or emotion. Emotion and feeling change, sometimes daily. But true unconditional love is everlasting.
– Sandeep Maheshwari

If you want to see the person all the time, talk to him/her, be with him/her, no, that doesn’t qualify it as love. That is crush or sometimes admiration, not love. Just because you feel you have an intense connection with someone, neither does that qualify as “love”. A lot of people have the misconception that “relationships” are “love”, whereas, they are very much different. It is possible that you are in a relationship with someone whom you don’t love, also, the vice versa is also true. Just because you feel sparks in you when you see that person, doesn’t qualify it as love either.

Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.
– Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

So then, what is love?
Love is the purest form of understanding. It basically tells each other that “Hey! Don’t you worry, whatever happens, I am with you!”. It is the completion of yourself with that person. It is the sense of calm you get around that person because you know, no matter what happens, you two always got each other’s backs! It is the slow dissolving of one’s habits into another’s! It is the union of two life rhythms, giving rise to one unified beat. It is that person to whom you can freely say any feeling you have, any secret you have, any desire you have, knowing that the person will never betray you. It is the respect you have for each other. It is the extra sweetness that is added to your happiness every time you succeed in something. It is the very little thing you do to bring a smile on the beloved’s one’s lips. It’s about going that extra mile, knowing that it will most definitely hurt! But to see the other half happy, you can do anything to bear that pain.

You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.
– Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

You don’t need to be perfect in love, all you need to be is real! The notion of “Perfect Love” is a totally idealized concept, it doesn’t exist in real life! There will always be something off about you two, and love is all about embracing these little imperfections just the same you as you take in the person. Love is about showing that effort, however little it may be. From sharing the load of work to bring food for the other person as well as doing the dishes together, every little thing matters in love!

The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.
– Marilyn Monroe

Love is not about lip kisses or cuddles always. It’s about that one smooth warm touch of the lips on your forehead. It’s about that one affectionate touch of the hand on your hand while you two are sitting under the blank of a million stars, with nothing but silence around you. It’s about that soothing heat you get close to that person under shade on a rainy evening. It’s about that warming ardor of touch under the blanket on a cold winter morning, with snow and freezing winds outside the window. It’s about counting each and every second that passes while waiting for the advent of that person. It’s about saying a million words, and not even unfolding your lips! It’s about one person taking the steering wheel when the other person rests. It’s about finding that one synced groove, where you two are not two different persons, but one and only one!

Don’t fall in love just because you have to fall in love, don’t fall in love just by the ideals of love. If you have to love, fall in love for the sake of love, for that person, for who he or she is, for how great he or she makes you. To love is to accept, to accept the person, to accept the identity, to accept the soul, to accept the imperfections, to just break open from the idealized world and accept that none of the things you saw in the movies will happen and yet… and yet loving that very same one person, day after day, month after month, year after year. Although you know that you two are not perfect, as long as there is an effort from both sides, know you are in love. It need not be perfect or ideal, all it needs to be is real and pure; for the purest of loves, will never ever leave you. There will be times of despair, but love is about not giving up, believing that together you two will get through. Love is about being that silver layer on the cloud, that one little light at the end of the tunnel.

So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me… everyday.
– Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Love is about keeping the promises, even the ones which were never said by mouth. Love is about being there, for that person, even when the world seems to end. Love is about caring for that person, even when he or she is suffering from any terminal disease. Love is about walking the path together, knowing that there will be gigantic mountains to scale, profound depths to overcome, perilous seas to sail. To love is to dive deep, to love is to fly high, to love is to live like you have never lived before! Love is all about love and to love, is the happiest thing any human can ever do.

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By Sayan Kundu

Be Yourself

May 9, 2019 | Life | 9 Comments

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
– Oscar Wilde

Ever wondered what the secret to success is? It’s YOU. Yes, “YOU”, not the person you want to become, but the person you are.

In the wild rapid of life, we often forget to have a look at our own selves and just get this blind belief that the person in front is better than us. Well, She may be a great singer, or maybe a great dancer, maybe she’s even a famous actress; but, that’s HER, not YOU. You great somewhere else, in some field where you are unbeatable, like, let’s say, Painting. Both Michelangelo and Leonardo-Da-Vinci were great painters, but do their creations looks the same? No! And yet, even while being in the same field, both of them are equally famous. Why? Simple! Each had his own style, his own signature of artwork, which was mastered by his own self.

The moment you start valuing yourself, the world will start valuing you.
– Sandeep Maheshwari

People are unique. Just because you saw a genius who can solve any mathematical problem in seconds, doesn’t mean that you have to too! It is certain that you can do something far better than that mathematician. YOU are unique, and only one in the universe! You represent others by their names or nicknames, but you represent yourself by “Me” – this very word has a lot of power, the infinite power to change your entire life. You’ll never call anyone else by the word “me”, it’s reserved for you only!

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success is not what you want to become, it is who you are. Stop chasing someone else, you are not someone else, you are your self. You are unique and precious. Let them be engineers, businessmen, whatever they want. You focus on what YOU want, not anyone else. Ultimately it’s your life, and when you’ll be sitting on a hospital bed one day, waiting for the final hour, the only question you’ll be asking yourself is “did I enjoy my life? did I make good use of it?” and trust me, if you keep on following others, you will never have a positive answer to that question. If you want something changed in your life, you yourself be the change, the rest will just follow! What happens in the outside world, that’s not under your control, but what you can control is your inner world. And if that inner world is peaceful, well, congratulations, you are living a truly peaceful life!

What you think about yourself matters more than what others think about you.
– Sandeep Maheshwari

Understand one thing, how harsh it may sound, the world, it won’t care about your struggle. It won’t care about anything else other than results, YOUR results, not someone else’s. So, stop caring about what other’s think of you and start emphasizing more on what you think of yourself. Don’t lose yourself in the crowded street, rather be the one unique person… the one person who becomes an inspiration to many… the one person who proves everyone who said “you can’t do it” wrong!… the one person who you once dreamt of becoming. People take more care about anything if a substitute for that particular thing doesn’t exist, like an antique. Be that only one unique person, don’t become a substitute to someone else, because just like you, there will be a lot of other substitutes too, and, so, you can easily be replaced. Don’t be the copy cat. Be the one unique antique! Be YOURSELF, second to none, irreplaceable! Life will automatically make you valuable. Prepare… Prepare… Prepare, and then one day, stun the world with who YOU are!

Dream of being the best version of you. Try impressing yourself and when you are done you will find that the world is already impressed by you.
– Avirupa Chakraborty
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By Sayan Kundu

Destination or Journey?

May 8, 2019 | Life | 2 Comments

Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.
– Chanda Kochhar

One of the most asked questions is – which one do you prefer more, the destination or the journey? While the busy working class will argue for the former, the real adventure seekers always prefer the later. Why?

If one set off with the sole motive of just getting to the destination, that very thought of the place to reach will occupy his mine during the entire journey; and in doing that, it will not be able to take in the beautiful memories that the journey itself has to offer, which, most of the time are far more precious than those at the destination. However, if one goes on a trip just for the sake of going on a trip, the only thing he will be thinking about is the trip itself. And believe it or not, the journey itself comprises of the major portion in any trip.

So, my dear reader, don’t go on following the thirst to reach the destination, rather be happy that you are on a trip… an expedition… an adventure; for the destination cannot impart that happiness to you that the journey can. The destination may be a snowy hill station atop a peak covered with the ever mesmerizing warm glow of the sun, but it will never as thrilling and romantic as the journey through a tunnel through the same mountain.

So, you may or may not reach your appointed destination on time, but be thankful about the saccharine memories you get in the slow and tedious process of reaching the place; for toil makes the result much more sweeter.

Remember one thing,

If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.
– Enoch Powell

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