ABOUT LEARNING

What learning does to us?

We start with the assumption that we are zero. We show that we are ready to be moulded any which ways it takes to learn the particular art. We become acceptable to criticism and appreciation from the teacher and the world around. We become fragile to slow grasping and stagnant learning. And in the end when we achieve what we aimed for, all these stages in between are hardly remembered. The joy of learning makes those stages insignificant which actually were the learning curves that didn't just teach us the art but revealed our fears, strengths and inspirational moments. We need to open ourselves and grow sensitive to the process of learning as it shows how we treat ourselves throughout the journey. It carves out the cowardice in us when at certain point we decide to back out, it reveals courage in us when after many falls and backing out attempts, we still hang on and the strength is revealed when hanging on is not enough and we push ourselves hard to excel in the art.

But this isn't it. This learning process isn't limited to personal realisation and growth but it keeps a check on our social behavioural patterns. While learning something; we meet people who have already mastered it, people who are ready to share their learning and their weaknesses, people who would just boost about their achievements and make it look like a simplest task that we should have learnt earlier in age, people who have spent ages trying to learn, have failed but are still hopeful and haven't given up yet and some who have given up and are disappointed with themselves or with those who taught them. Dealing with all sort of people and understanding what to and what not to grasp from them is itself a learning. And the way we deal with them improves only when we are aware of this learning process and conscious towards the changes within and around.

Then what goes wrong? Why and when does our progress start deteriorating? Why does the growth stop?

When we are juvenile, we are constantly learning and so we possess all those godly characters of humbleness, innocence, curiosity, awe and transparency. As we become adults and our physical growth stops, we happen to discontinue our mental and spiritual growth as well. We consider what we know as ultimate knowledge and start replacing humbleness with arrogance, innocence with cunningness, curiosity with indifference, awe with inertia and transparency with rigidity.

And there we go wrong. Human mind has no limitations of aging and dying, it is we who impose these limitations. We become the hindrance to our own growth, our own evolution.

To keep evolving, to keep growing we should keep learning something new every year, every month and every moment of our lives.
 

WAKE UP FROM DENIAL

Our lives are full of denials. Love denials, social denials, workplace denials, medical denials and many more such denials.

It is easy. It is safe. It saves us a lot of hustle. If we think life is a puppet to destiny then denial is the only string we operate. If things, situations, opinions are against us, we pull ourselves away from them, shut ourselves from their influence. Facing them might topple our world, we fear. Closing ourselves from the them, we can still hold on to our world the way it is - hypothetical, illusive, unreal but comfortable.

It is not a conscious game. Our subconscious has the control. Like a tortoise pulling itself inside the shell thinks that the danger around will vanish, we use denial as our defence from reality and hardly notice that we remain standstill while the world has moved on.

Not our fault. We have been taught to be positive, trained to think that what we want to achieve is achievable. But how long to try, is never mentioned. So more than being positive, we need to be real with a dash of positivity. Set ourselves a limit from where we need to and we should change the direction.

Denial is like a dream. A dream that has life, perfectly the way we want, with perfect people around, wholesome happiness and suitable situations. But life will be lifeless with such perfection. No one is perfect, happiness is relative to sorrow and situations are stagnant without change. If we cannot notice this, understand this difference then we might be still in a dream. We need to wake up.

The world will always be dropping hints to tell us that we have stopped moving through people around us, incidents or from within as doubts, intuitions, anger. We need to be receptive. Dwell on these negative thoughts for a while if they are reoccurring. Try to validate them and if they do, act upon them. They are various forms of fear, we need to deal with, accept our shortcomings and change accordingly to move on.

Because life is not a puppet to destiny but to our thoughts.

GRATITUDE

There are many books, sages and gurus telling us about gratitude. They say- 'at the end of the day, bow down to the almighty and thank him for the wonderful day, for all good and bad.' That is definitely a great way to end a day but I ask 'is the almighty himself coming down and helping you in your day to day activities?' No never. He helps you through people around you.

So how often do we thank those people? From making a cup of tea in the morning to dropping us to work, cooking meals to doing all the odd jobs at work, there is always a hand helping us with everything, everytime in someway or the other.

Some of us do thank them. We do thank a favour, thank those who help us going out of their way, doing a bit extra than their job for us. But then, how many of us thank those who do their everyday duty to help us like our parents, our partner, our kids or our house helpers? They do their jobs out of responsibility, social or monetary but that occasional gratitude will change that into an act of love and respect.

Gratitude does have the power to better our lives if it is offered to every being helping us before it is offered to the almighty. 

LOVING A DOG

God created the World, then the Man and then the Woman but he must have achieved the balance of life and harmony when he created The DOG.
It would take a real hard stone in place of heart if a pup cannot melt it away. A wagging tail must be the simplest and purest way to draw a smile on any face.

Befriending street dogs or others' dogs would prove you amicable to the species but when you own a dog then you know - Loving a Dog is actually Raising a Dog

One can never forget the first day when you bring a pup into your life. You - holding him in a piece of cloth, close to your heart like you hold a baby and Him - screaming his throat out at you for pulling him into a new place. Then, from being complete strangers, he gives into you and sleeps close to you, snuggling around your arm. That snuggle is definitely more satisfying and melting than a piece of warm chocolate cake into your mouth.

Talking to him, is the first habit you pick up naturally. Explaining him things, asking his opinions and choices, scolding him, pampering him, singing songs to him, calling him a hundred names; his language skills are completely forgotten by you. This is surly the first symptom of loving a dog, but understanding his responses needs a dive deeper into this love.

The first walk with him through the streets, you introduce him to the different terrains, sounds, lights, vehicles and other animals. Some of which scare him and he draws himself between your legs where he knows he will be safe. Nothing can grow you more responsible than that. Watching him peep over the car window, enjoying the blow of wind into his ears and the joyous run chasing the butterflies, when you take him for a field trip; surly simplifies your perception of joy.

And there are these endless moments when he amuses you like the ways of expressing his unlikeliness for a bath or a visit to the vet, his tap dancing when he has some serious nature's call to attend, his possessiveness for you, his ways of expressing gratitude and anger, turning his head from side to side when you talk to him as if he understands every word and his tireless merry-go-round tail chaises.

Its said that you make dog a part of your life but he makes you his complete life. But for someone who loves you so much, it definitely gets more than just a part. With time and love, you decode his wagging tail language, his expressions, his gestures, his likes, his dislikes and then you go deeper celebrating his birthdays, counting his spots, hair in his mustache, number of hours he sleeps in a day, his high jumps, his back to back sneezes and even the number of times he poops in a day. But then, there is no madness limit in loving a dog.

You may lose out on a reason to wake up to every morning unless you have a wagging tail waiting at your bedside.