A quote from slaughter house 5

I read this book some time back but this powerful quote will stay with me forever.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” 

This is something that us youngsters can put to use everyday. Identity your key areas of strength and deliver results in them instead of trying your hands in everything. Aiming for the sky is good but at one point we should take a step back and prioritise our goals. Recently one of our leaders was asked the key to his phenomenal rise within the company and what was the secret for his success. He gave a brilliant reply to it. He told he never aimed for this position. He just worked really hard in excelling the task at hand and gradually he was given more responsibility. Ultimately he is responsible for one of the most critical units of the organisation and still follows the same rule. He knew the things that he can change and he did change it.

Another simple interpretation of it is that you cannot change the past nor you can control the future. But the present is in your hands and do your best to fix that.

This quote was a prayer which was hung on the wall of the protagonist's office in the novel. It helped many of his patients to keep going in life. It does for me too.

You were looking for the key for years. But the door was always open.

Recently I was reading the book "The White Tiger". It gives true glimpses of the dark side of India and it also gives some nice quotes by top muslim poets. One of them really makes you think hard.

"You were looking for the key for years. But the door was always open.".

I looked for the actual urdu version of it but could not find it. I am sure that the urdu one would be even more beautiful.

Our entire life we strive to achieve happiness and everyone tries to find it from different sources. Some equate it with money, some with a big house, some with materials and some with the divine. But in this quest we forget to take a break and look around. Happiness is not a destination, it is your journey.

I go for a walk in the morning. That is happiness for me.
I can read everyday and finish at least one book a week. That is happiness for me.
Every evening I can sit and chat with my wife and laugh as we used to do when we were teenagers. That is happiness for me.
I can travel around and see new places every now and then. That is happiness for me.
By god's grace I have enough to fulfil my silly wants. That is happiness for me.

But if I just blindly work day and night to get the dream house or the dream salary and stop doing the above. Then will I be truly happy when I get those things? I don't think so. I will again change my goals and work tirelessly for that.

One simply quote but we can think about it for days and have so many interpretations about it. 

Last Few Days at IIT

The life as we know it now ("kgp life") is going to be over soon. Stepping out of this world reminds me of all my early memories about this wonderful place where I entered five years back. When finally my father left and I was sitting alone in the tiny two seater room in W-401 MMM Hall of Residence, I was thinking about where I stand now. I saw that small room and I realized that now I am responsible for myself, my money, food and of course that tiny room which is now mine. Few days back I was just a school kid, careless and childish. I never thought what will happen tomorrow. And now everything is going to change. I have to survive in this competition inside IIT and plan for everything.

But as most of you have realized the time that you spend in kgp are one of the most relaxing and stress free years of your life. You can always be in your dream world and nobody will bother to disturb you. You can sleep at morning 3 am or 10 am and wake up whenever you want. And if you feel its not enough then you can sleep again. You can postpone everything for the last moment and if even after that you don't feel like doing it then just don't and let it go. Getting bored is never an issue here. You never know how the days pass by. Just go for a tea to tikka's or for a maggi to cheddis and you spend hours chatting over there. Open the comp and finish a season of friends, prison break, boston legal etc. And just before the exams you can simply gather with 4-5 of your friends and try to make sense out of the xerox notes that you are seeing for the first time. And even during the exams what you think about is the party that you are going to have as soon as it gets over. Finally you see your grades and decide to change some things from the next semester. And it never happens.

But even with all these things finally when we get out of this place we go as responsible men. This place gives us friends whom we will cherish through out our life. There is a big change in the way we talk, walk and think. Kgp teaches us a way of life that we can never ever forget.

OBC RESERVATION

Few days back one of my friends and I were watching an episode of Devil's Advocate. Here Karan Thappar was interviewing our Education Minister Arjun Singh. You might already have guessed the point of discussion. It is OBC reservation. Every person I meet is against it but at least I thought these politicians who passed this rule might be having some idea of what they were doing and they can explain it with some convincing arguments ( still it doesn't make it right ).

But I was really surprised to see that the man resposible for this entire chaos could not even provide one single reason to justify his stand. When he was asked about what is the percentage of OBC students currently enrolled in institutes of higher education, he could not give any approximate figure. But as per the reports given around 16% students enrolled in these universities are OBC. So they already constitute a good percentage of the student population. And many of the seats reserved for SC/ST are still lying vacant. So many hard working students are being denied these seats which are never even used. His answer was that every fact will be taken into consideration and they will look after the cause behind this. Now if you are a leader you should not give such vague answers on TV. You cannot give any proposal without doing proper ground work or foreseeing all the future consequences and the feasibility. And if the education system of the entire country depends on you then it is really a shame to implement some rule and then not being able to say anything to defend it. In the entire show the only answer he could give was that "This decision is taken by the parliament we all should respect it. And we should not question the actions taken by the supreme authority". He forgot that he himself is a member of the parliament and it is his duty to justify the acts of the parliament.

I would like to quote one saying by Martin Luther King "On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, `Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, `Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, `Is it popular?' But Conscience asks the question, `Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right." So its not a matter of interest of some part of the population neither it is a matter of political gain nor a matter of personal interest. At the end of the day if you do something it should be right and let your conscience guide you.