Proxy Words

Happy New Year!!

From 2020;

A year which everybody wanted to end,
But the learnings everybody wants to ponder.
A historic year which will never resurface;
A year that unfolded the pages of the book called “Life”;
A year that was as good as a decade,
A year that gave us the power to face challenges,
A year that taught us to stay together,
A year that taught us “Health is Wealth”,
A year that reminded us of having a me-time,
A year that gave space and time to our hobbies,
A year that let us come out from the daily routine cycle;
A year that helped us understand the true power of nature,
A year that taught us humanity and preparedness,
A year that helped us nurture relationships,
A year that taught us the power of acceptance and positivity,
A year that will lead to many successful years ahead;

Wishing 2021:

A Very Happy New Year!!

© Ashish Madan Kale

The sky has no color!

Hello all the awesome Bloggers and Readers! After receiving an overwhelming response on my first attempt at writing poetry (I’ve failed in life!) , I decided to give a try for another poem. Please read and share your views and suggestions.

A little girl asked her grandfather: –

I have no clue;
Whether the sky is blue?
I see it blue during the day,
When I study in the school and then play.
Or Red – Orange during dawn and dusk,
When it’s time; farmers start or have separated the husk.
Or Prussian blue or black at night,
When the whole family reunite.
Or it shines golden like gold,
Don’t know what nature has in the mould.
Or it appears pink at times,
As if wishing all the girls to be fearful all times.
Or it crowns itself with a rainbow,
Making colors overflow,
As seen from my window.
Please solve this mystery of colors;
I cannot recognize the sky
Every time I look up to the sky.

Her grandfather replied: –

You have seen all the colors of the sky,
Through your tiny eyes that would spy.
Your question is genuine and innocent,
Now let me end your hunt.
It is the sunlight,
Which consists of a rainbow of colors;
When passing through the atmosphere,
Scatters all the colors.
You see it blue all day,
As the blue component scatters all the way;
Showing off its high frequency and shorter wavelength.
Violet color scatters the most and wins the race,
But our eyes welcome the blues and strikes an ace.
The sky appears orange red at dawn and dusk,
As the position of sun then doesn’t allow the blue to bask.
Similar is the case every time;
The beautiful sunlight and atmosphere play with time.
You just sit and enjoy the serene beauty of nature;
In spite of the color it captures.

Just shared this song below since it’s related to sky. Enjoy!

4 in 1 awards!!

Hello all the awesome Bloggers and Readers out there! ❤️

Hope you all had a good week. Yes, this post is in continuation of the previous Liebster Awards (#1,2,3,4) post in the series of awards post. In the previous post, I mentioned that Proxywords has been nominated for 7 awards in total, but in the mean time I was nominated for one more award so the tally goes to 8 now. I am very much grateful to all the bloggers who nominated me for the awards and considered my blog worthy of the nominations. I just cannot express my happiness; a biggg thank you againnn!! 😊🤗

So, coming straight to the nominations; Proxywords was nominated for 4 more awards from another four amazing bloggers.

First one to nominate me for the Vincent Ehindro Blogger Award was Peaks of Cheeks . The next award was Sunshine Blogger Award by Lebogang Shazzygal Malatji. The third award nomination was for the Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award by Offshorewriter. Last but not the least the award nomination from Shreya Sinha for Blogger Recognition award. Thank you all for nominating me and please do checkout their blog, they are the real inspirations.

#1 – Vincent Ehindro Blogger Award

SMB- Peaks of Cheeks

What is the most insufferable dish you have tasted? And what did you do??

I don’t remember any insufferable dish, but yes it was an insufferable restaurant we been to. The other day my health was out of order and now my friends have a reason to tease me!

What is the naughtiest thing you have done as a child?

As a child, while dancing I purposely pushed one of my friends off the stage and went from there. Although this was a sort of revenge, but felt bad afterwards. He was searching all the way who pushed him (not me!) 😁

When has a child really annoyed you?

Ohh is there a single time? There are many instances when small children annoy us but that is a temporary moment. They are innocent!

Have you stalked someone?

Yes, but that is a long way back.

Have you seen a movie which you are embarrassed to talk about?

No, not at all. I do watch movies and there is nothing that embarrasses me to talk about in a movie.

The three wish you would ask to a gene?

Only one wish – Make this world a better place to live. 🤗

If you could be anything for a day, what would it be ?

I would love to be the Prime Minister of my country. For a day I think that would be a whole lot of task.

#2 – Sunshine Blogger Award

Lebogang Shazzygal Malatji

What’s the first thing you do in the morning?

Make my own bed and head towards the window. 🌞

How do you handle pressure?

By not taking pressure i guess 😁

Would you rather confront matters or cry yourself to sleep?

I would rather confront the matter, crying will not at all help – solving the matter helps.

What’s your biggest disappointment and how did you overcome?

A sort of disappointment but not a regret – Not quitting my job early.

How frequent do you post on your blog?

Maybe one post in two weeks. I know I have to improve the frequency of my posts and I will get it done fast.

Name two mistakes you’ve made when you started blogging?

I will not call it a mistake but I should have done more research about the whole process, . But the thing is, then I guess it would have taken time and we would have not met early.

How has blogging changed your perspective in life?

Blogging has not changed my perspective in life. But, it surely has enhanced my perspective I can say.

Where are most of your views?

On WordPress for sure 💖

What’s your take on purpose?

It’s okay not having a purpose in doing a certain thing, but then you should be at least passionate about the same.

Would you say you are aligned with your purpose?

Yes, I am aligned with my purpose in life.

What would you say to your younger self?

Be cautious with people around you and cherish all the little moments in life which will be the future memories.

#3 – Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

Offshorewriter

When did you start this blogging journey?

June this year.

What are your hobbies?

Writing blog posts, playing Lawn Tennis and indoor games like table tennis.

Tell us what keeps you going when you are feeling low/down?

A conversation with family/friends.

Who do you look up for motivation/inspiration?

My parents and family every time!

Who is your favorite blogger in WP?

If I name one that will surely be unfair to all the amazing bloggers out there. So, I will not name one but can say that Offshorewriter are one of my favorite bloggers.

#4 –Blogger Recognition Award

Shreya Sinha

Summary of how my blog started:

Actually, I didn’t start writing the blog in the lockdown period like most of the bloggers. I didn’t think at all that I would start writing and have my own blog on WordPress. To be frank, it was never on my list until my friend (subtlespells) who started writing her blog before, suggested me to start writing and introduced me to WordPress. I am very much grateful to her for introducing me to the world of Blogosphere. She has a beautiful blog, please check out her blog here.

So after some understanding of WordPress site, the first post was up there and I was overwhelmed with the response on the post. That motivation was enough to write more and more. Now after receiving these award nominations, the responsibility is doubled. Thank you very much for the award nominations and I assure you that you will get to see more posts from me in future.

According to rules, I have to give two advices for new bloggers. It’s just that don’t force yourself to write; write your heart out and be unique in your own writings.

I hate to say this as it will be unfair on my part to tag few of the awesome bloggers but feel free to nominate yourself for these awards and answer the same questions as all of you deserve them. You can also post the answers in the comments section if not a separate post.

P.S.: All the award posts are done and you will definitely see some poems and write-ups in my future posts.

Liebster Awards (#1,2,3,4)

Hello all the awesome Bloggers and Readers out there!

Hope you all had a good week 😊 You must be surprised after seeing the Thank you #1 on the image; yes, that’s because there is another post of awards after this post is up there. Yes, Proxywords has been nominated for 7 awards in total in the past few days (Hurrayyyyy!!! 😍). I am pretty muchhh excitedddd to post the answers. After starting this blog, I visited many blogs and saw the awards post on most of the blogs. I was skeptical about the same and after learning the reason behind the nominations, it was pretty much fun to read the answers of other bloggers. The awards give a recognition to the famous blogs and also the new ones. It does provide a platform to new bloggers and existing bloggers and others to know more about them through their answers.

So, the past few weeks were pretty much about all the nominations. A biggggg Thank you to all the Bloggers who nominated me and considered my blog worthy of the nominations 🤗. I just can’t express how I am feeling after getting nominated for all the awards, just can’t thank you enough. Proxywords was nominated for four Liebster awards by four awesome bloggers.

Abigail Thomas (Me & Stuff) was the first one to nominate for the Liebster award. She has an awesome blog. She started to write her ideas on google documents and then discovered the WordPress app. You should surely check out her blog here.

The next person to nominate for the Liebster award was Akshita Bansal (where the inspiration lies). She composes beautiful poems and she has a unique style of writing poetry. Her poem on Malala Yousafzai is worth a read. Check out her blog here.

Next to nominate was Raksha (Raksha’s not so secret diary). She writes her heart out in her posts. She puts her opinion very frankly and that’s what her blog speaks about. Do checkout her blog.

Last but not the least thanks to Dr. Namrata Ph.D nominating me for the Leibster award. Please checkout her blog here. She writes blog posts and is fond of books. You can find book reviews on her blog and she has recently started a new series on motherhood.

So here are the rules and answers to the Award questions by all the bloggers. Had to keep it short to answer all of them as I didn’t wanted to miss any of the questions:

The guidelines for participating in the Liebster Award:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you for the Liebster Award and provide a link to their blog
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you
3. Nominate 11 bloggers
4. Ask your nominees 11 questions
5. Notify your nominees, telling them that you’ve nominated them for the Liebster Award and to look out for your post within the next few days

#1 – Questions by Abigail

What inspired you to start a blog?

A friend of mine inspired me to start a blog.

Do you think blogging is fun?

Absolutely! It’s way more than fun 😇

Did you ever feel like discontinuing your blog post?

Not even in my dreams and I don’t think this type of thought will ever come to my mind.

What is your best quality?

I guess straight forwardness is my best quality. It makes things crystal clear for me and the other person.

A thing you would like to change about yourself or others?

I would like to stop procrastinating than usual, though I am improving on that and about others the list is unending.

What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?

My birth is the best thing ever happened (After all life is the best gift)

What’s the best part about writing a blog?

There are many things which I like about writing a blog. Writing a blog connects you to the awesome WP community, it gives you an opportunity to write your heart out, make new friends, improve your communication, vocabulary, see many artworks and so onnn….💖

What do you think is important for a blog?

Content, consistency and of course readers.

A fun fact about yourself.

Well, this would be new for those who have not seen me in person; but most of the people still think that I am a college going boy. I look too young for my age, that’s a fun fact about me.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

My biggest pet peeve – People sharing stories of their friends of wishing them a happy birthday.

Lastly, Your favorite place on earth (apart from home obviously).

Any place on earth surrounded by nature 💚

#2 – Questions by akshita bansal

What is your limit to strive for your goals?

I think there are no limits when we think of a goal. After all, we set goals to achieve them and hence it’s limitless.

Have you ever belittled someone just for your sake of pleasure?

Yes (I know it’s wrong), but back then I was a child.

What do you think is the most wrong thing still prevailing in this world?

Selfishness: – It’s the worst thing prevailing, which is the cause of all the bad doings in this world.

What inspires you to rise and shine everyday?

A good night’s sleep I guess 😂 Just kidding, a beautiful sunrise and the rays of light entering my room after just waking up.

Do you feel like prioritizing between your family time and your goals, and if so, which will you prioritize and why?

I think they go hand in hand. My family supports and respect my individual goals.

Anything which demotivates you?

When the other person is not satisfied with my work despite putting my 100% efforts in shaping it.

What all distracts you from focusing over anything, if any, how can you overcome through that?

The major distractions we all have – social media on mobile phones. I cannot overcome that literally, the only thing which I can do is limit the use (duh..that’s harddd) 😂

Life is full of chances; would you mind giving a second one to someone?

Yes, life is full of chances and we cannot literally judge a person on a first impression. So, I don’t mind giving a second chance to someone.

If you could change anything today, what would that be?

Changing the current world (struggling with Coronavirus) with the previous normal world (without this virus).

Why is writing important to you?

To pen my thoughts on paper which will motivate and inspire people.

What is the purpose of your writings?

To motivate and inspire others.

#3 – Questions by Raksha

Why did you start this blog?

To write my heart out.

Describe your blog in one word

That’s a tough question to answer, describing a blog is limitless and here we have to answer in one word only. Okay, I will go with the adjective “Kindred” i.e. the same beliefs/thoughts we all share.

What is a quality of yours you want to work on?

Procrastination, I guess I am already working on it and have achieved results.

Favorite book of all time?

I am not eligible to answer this question as I don’t read a lot of books, sorry.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

If I could go back in time, I would like to save my best friend from avoiding an accident which ended his life.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

My family is my biggest inspiration always 💕

Would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

Frankly speaking, I don’t like to answer this question as I think these definitions are made to just differentiate people. In my opinion, no one is perfect introvert or extrovert; it depends on situations and liking towards certain things. Although to answer this question by definition, I will classify myself as an Ambivert.

Favorite movie of all time?

There are many favorite movies in Bollywood & Hollywood. One movie that I find unique and is one of my favorite is Exam (2009).

Do you see yourself discontinuing your blog?

Never (not even in my dreams)

Is there anything you hate about blogging?

Nothing. Just feel bad for those bloggers whose content is copied by other so called bloggers for publicity.

If you can change one thing about the people around you, what would it be?

“The people around me”

#4 – Questions by Dr. Namrata Ph.D

Your favorite thing about blogging?

One thing lockdown taught you?

Lockdown has changed the perception of seeing things. The thing lockdown has taught me is “We are never busy in life, we can always take time out to cherish small things with family and friends”. 😊

Your biggest life achievement?

All the stages which I have passed through until now in my life are a part of my life achievements.

What you dislike about blogging?

I like everything about blogging. 😊

Your blogging goals and your plans to achieve them.

Initially, I was new to blogging and also new to the web technology. I was unaware about domains/hosting/collabs (and I am not afraid to share that), but now I am getting to know all these things and so my blogging goal include learning more of these and sharing my content to other platforms like IG.

Your favorite memory in the history of blogging?

My favorite memory was when my first blog post was well received and appreciated by all the bloggers. The appreciation gave me the motivation to write further posts. Also, I was overwhelmed when I was nominated for the first award i.e Mystery Blogger Award and all these awards nomination I am sharing J

Describe your blog in three words

Life Situations Solutions

Describe yourself in three words

Positive, Friendly and Ambitious.

Have you ever thought about quitting blogging?

Never (not even in my dreams)

What does blogging do to you?

Blogging helps me to observe things closely and to have a firm opinion of my own. Blogging has connected me to whole lot of new friends and Blogging helps me learn new things every day from the awesome bloggers may it be new news, new concept, new technology, new art etc. All in all, blogging connects me to the world.

It’s a tough job to nominate a few bloggers from a whole lot of awesome bloggers. So, congratulations you are nominated for the Liebster award. Here are the nominees:

My Questions to nominees: Since it’s already a very long post, you can select any 11 questions from above answered questions.

Once again Thank you for nominating me for the Leibster Awards.

-Ashish Madan Kale

In this COVID times!

I know I am pretty much late (not actually; I am absolute late) to write about the current situation we (the whole world) all are facing. Actually, I can bank on the opportunity to write my blog post on this topic by saying that the pandemic is not yet over (Trust me! I am not at all delighted to say so (who on the earth would be), I’d have hoped to write the reverse 🙁). Also, I started my blog from June end (I wonder why I didn’t start to write blogs during lockdown period when I had ample of time 🤔 Please forget that for the time being, that’s another story). Let the excuses be over; now that I have started to write this post.

From the past few months, the whole world is facing a global epidemic out of nowhere. There was an article published in TOI which read “For the first time in history, every government on the planet has been set the same homework assignment at the same time.” It’s pretty much an apt expression, but it’s an unwanted and a surprise assignment for each and every individual on this planet and also for the respective governments. Even there is no scope of copying the assignment to gain full marks and come out of this pandemic, since no one knows the solution yet. Although, this is not the first pandemic in history; but surely a pandemic after a period of 100 years or so.

*Image Source: Google (No copyright infringement is intended)*

My brother reminded us of the vision India had set named Vision 2020 for the country two decades ago; under the leadership of the late President of India and a brilliant scientist Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Nobody knew then that after two decades, India along with all the countries will have to face such a pandemic situation.

The current pandemic gave rise to the discovery of some words which are flashing in our minds every moment (as all of us know already):

Coronavirus (COVID-19; SARS COV-2)
Pandemic
PPE kit
Sanitization
Lockdown
Quarantine
Isolation
& Lastly “THE VACCINE” (a safe vaccine for which we are waiting in anticipation)

Most of the countries in the world (including India with a population of 1.3 billion) were compelled to enforce a complete lockdown in the interest of their own people. Now, almost all the countries are in the unlock phase; with some countries again enforcing local lockdowns to contain the spread. During the lockdown period, all the trades, businesses, industries, etc. came to a standstill and had to bear a huge loss. Even as people faced financial losses, the lockdown phase brought some happiness in the family by cherishing the little moments with family and devoting time to analyze self; to bring about a change and develop our personality. Mostly, all of us played indoor games (Board and card games) which we never played after our childhood, practiced yoga/meditation, carried out cleaning works (since all the maids were on a holiday and that sanitization is the most important part nowadays), planted new trees in the garden, watched Netflix and other TV shows, read books, attended webinars on various topics, baked many cakes and tried new recipes, cherished watching old family pics album, pursued an old hobby (painting, singing, dancing etc.) and the list is never ending. So, all in all that was a pretty different lifestyle adopted in the lockdown period, which provided a much-needed break from the busy (nowadays one cannot say so) schedule.

Having said that, there were many of my friends and relatives who were working continuously for their company during this period too. Yes, we cannot forget all the essential and frontline helath workers in this pandemic situation. But here, I am referring to the ones who stayed and worked from home (and are still working from home). Almost all the offices have started in the unlock phase, but the whole IT sector and design company employees are still working from home. In the pre-Covid period (yes, this is what it’s called nowadays), working from home was not permitted easily. But, after the lockdown was imposed countrywide; the only option was to work from home.

Work from home has many advantages and disadvantages for the employers and the employees. Firstly, this situation was a surprise for all; so don’t want to blame anybody for the same but thought of sharing some points. The lockdown unfortunately compelled many employers to suspend or fully terminate many jobs. Some lucky ones got a place after one or two months to fill the voids due to workload, but couldn’t suffice all. Many companies couldn’t continue with their current clientele. Some companies had to switch to other roles to meet the rolling demands of their company (like for example, a company dealing with paints also manufactured sanitizers in order to meet the supplementary demands). This, in turn proved to be challenging for the employees working from home who don’t know anything about the new product. Working from home also proved to be a challenge for the managers working in an organization to monitor the subordinates work through zoom meetings, calls and mails. The working teams were downsized, putting stress on the existing teams to carry out the extra work by devoting extra hours (which was extremely difficult for married ladies in addition to household chores). Employees too cannot say no or quit the existing job in this situation adding to their stress and anxiety. I think all the managers and employers should monitor the situation closely by not adding extra pressure on employees and disturbing the work-life balance in this pandemic situation. All in all, working from home didn’t quiet turned out to be fun but stressful on both the ends. I don’t think anybody will opt to work from home in the near future.

We all writers in this Blogosphere (including me, of course) have mentioned expressions from the past few months; in this lockdown period/ in this pandemic situation/ in these uncertain times often in our articles. I think some good things that are achieved due to coronavirus such as reduction of carbon emissions, appreciation of health workers and grocery dealers who were taken for granted in this society, breaking the busy routine and having a me and family time, clear water in lakes and canals (In India, all the Ganesh idols in the Ganeshotsav festival 2020 were immersed in artificial tanks/wells unlike immersion in lakes/sea every year and the size of idols was also restricted), digitization etc. should not be restricted to this lockdown period alone. These practices should continue after this whole situation is brought under control for the well-being of people and society as a whole.

Sorry for the so so long post (P.S: Had a lot in mind, but this topic is endless unlike Covid-19 which should end ASAP). Thanks for reading!

Mystery Blogger Award!

So, this post was never on my list and suddenly I was nominated for Mystery Blogger Award. All thanks to Pragya Khokar (immortalwords0802.wordpress.com) for nominating me for first such award, it really means a lot to me. Please do check her blog!

Rules:

Put the award logo on your blog.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Mention the creator of the award.
This award was created by Okoto Enigma. Check out her blog.
Answer the questions you were asked.
Tell the readers three things about you.
Nominate 10-20 bloggers.
Notify the bloggers (tell them you nominated them) by commenting on one of their posts.
Ask your nominees five questions with one weird or funny one.
Share a link to your best posts.

Pragya’s Questions:

1.Which country and place do you belong to?
👉 Nagpur, India ❤️

2.Would you like to go invisible or read others’ minds?
👉 It depends actually. If I can read one person’s mind at a time, then it’s fine. But if I have to read multiple minds at the same instance, that would be a mess and then surely I would prefer to be invisible from all the people and society 😊

3.Describe your blog shortly?
👉 My blog is all about thoughts or issues faced by majority of us in some way or the other, put together to find solutions which can directly or indirectly help someone achieve their goal. 🙂

4.What would you prefer-tea or coffee?
👉 This one is a bit tricky question for me as I love both tea and coffee. 😍 I just cannot be partial when one is asking me to choose between the two. So, I am unable to find a justified answer to this question.

5.Phobia for any object or situation that disturbs you very much?
👉 I don’t understand when people say I am not scared of heights, deep water, deep valleys etc. I think all this is lie, as I have a phobia of all these things. Everyone is scared at some point of time (at least I think so 😬).

My questions for the nominees are same as I can’t think of any other at this point of time.

I wish I could tag and nominate all the awesome people out there but then here are few of them:

https://subtlespells.wordpress.com/

https://offshorewritings.com/

https://whatareuuptoduringthelockdown.wordpress.com/

https://illustratedbyhannah.wordpress.com/blog/

https://karlien09.wordpress.com/

https://bartaulasudeep129blogspot.wordpress.com/

https://beautifulpeopleinc.com/

https://poetrylance.wordpress.com/

The links to my best posts (If you haven’t read already):

Capriciousness – https://wp.me/pc8pKn-1i

I’ve failed in life! – https://wp.me/pc8pKn-1x

I’ve failed in life!

A moment came;
I failed in life.

That made me think again,
From my childhood till now,
I’ve failed in my life.

I began to question my own existence
and thought of ending my life.
With the only thought running through my mind;
I’ve failed in life.

Nobody wanted to see me grow like this;
Right from when I was a child.
The mischiefs I did,
Were the mistakes of my life.
I’ve failed in life.

I should have scored good
to meet the expectation of my parents.
The pages of the book I turned
Were never the pages of my life?
I’ve failed in life.

My relatives wanted to see me become
A Doctor, Scientist or an Engineer!
but I chose to make people smile;
By not becoming a joker;
But a photographer.
Which was a mistake of my life
I’ve failed in life!

I applied and got a good job
amongst the mob;
rather than joining the family business
and diverting my mind in this rife.
I’ve failed in life.

Fell in love with a lovely girl;
And such was our relationship,
We had vowed for our lifelong support
But she could never become my wife.
I’ve failed in life.

I bundled these failures in my mind
and decided to end my life.
You don’t repeat the same mistake
Else;
You will fail in life!

P.S. – This is my first attempt to write a poem, so please bear with me if there are any grammatical or typing errors. Suggestions and thoughts are always welcomed!

Capriciousness !!

The words – irrational, whimsical, capricious; all are branches of the same tree. These words are always perceived in a negative manner. Yes, they may sound negative with the use in our daily life; all of them can be attributed to a single feeling i.e. mood swings.

We often use the term “mood swing” very casually in our daily life. Mood swings are often correlated to as a roller coaster ride. The roller coaster ride still has a starting and an end point, unlike mood swings which don’t have a definite ending.

Almost everybody in this world have mood swings in a way or other. Right from a small child to powerful leaders like Hitler; everybody has their own mood swings. In the lockdown period, it is pretty much justified to have mood swings while we are under continuous threat, stress and depression. It’s often said that women have more mood swings than men; to some extent it’s true as they undergo more rapid hormonal changes compared to men. But, both men and women have mood swings owing to hormonal changes, stress, depression, lack of sleep etc. So are these mood swings pretty much normal and a part of our modern lifestyle?

Well, it certainly depends on the situations in and around you.

Just think you didn’t have enough sleep at night since you were texting someone special the previous night (shhh…. Yes, that will be a secret with me!) and your mom suddenly wakes you up early in the morning. Ultimately, you wake up in a bad mood. Then, you carry out your regular chores – have your perfect cup of tea/coffee (made by your mom), get ready after a cool shower on a sunny day and you feel fresh. After reaching your workplace, you have to attend to your boss and he gives you a list of unlimited tasks to carry out in a day itself. You feel very stressed and annoyed at your boss for assigning loads of work. But then, a short tea/coffee break with your favorite colleague at work provides you the much-needed motivation to complete the tasks. You finally complete your work and leave for the day and reach home (where your family is waiting for you) with no worries of work.

That’s what you would say at the EOD after facing all the ups and downs throughout the day!

So the situations are normal, but are these mood swings acceptable? It completely depends on the frequency of the mood swings and the person you are with. They are normal so long it does not affect you and the surrounding people.

One of my relative was working in a top MNC. She was a humble, sincere and dedicated employee of theirs. Everything was going normal other than promotions because of all the regular politics in a top brass company, yet she was happy as she was doing the job she loved. She went to office the other day and was called on by the boss. She was immediately handed a termination letter without being informed the reason. She immediately called upon her higher ups to know the reason but to no avail. Neither the boss owed an explanation. Thus, she was a victim of boss’ capriciousness.

Mood swings are sometimes good and sometimes bad. If a woman is in her pregnancy and she has her mood swings, it’s considered normal and her man handles her mood swings in a very playful way. Similarly, in a friendship/relationship the other person who has committed to stand beside them in all of their moods and/or situations can handle their mood swings respectfully. But when we are interacting with a third person and imposing our mood swings on them, they might not take it in a playful and friendly way and it may disturb you and the people around you. Also, the mood swings are good till they are not frequent. If they are periodic, it may be a symptom of mental illness or something more serious.
So what can be done?
You just have to stay in a good mood all day?
No! That’s practically impossible. We cannot always be in a good mood, all we can do is:
Lead a good and healthy lifestyle
Don’t be sleep deprived
Take adequate rest
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Birth-days’…..

What’s on my mind?

Am I going crazy here?

There are no birthdays’, every creature on this earth celebrates only a single day every year –their birthday.

But wait, here I have purposely split birthday with a hyphen. So, Birth-days’ refer to the days after our birth; it may be any number of days which are gracefully inscribed in our destiny or the time we are on earth to make the most of the lovely gift called life.

While I was deciphering above thoughts; a thought came through my mind of the fallen apple on Sir Isaac Newton’s head (I know a very cliché thought but that’s what we have been listening to from our childhood). As history reveals, the apple fell on the head of young Isaac Newton that prompted him to come up with the law of gravity. The purpose of life of that apple which fell on Newton’s head was accomplished. While the purpose of the apple was accomplished, it could happen only after the birth of the apple (from the apple seed planted). The birth of that apple was the beginning of its journey towards its final goal.

Birth- a lovely gift for a person /a thing to begin their wonderful journey!

The growth of a plant from the seed also marks the birth of the fruits that the tree will bear in the future. When a woman gives birth to a child, the birth marks the beginning of his/her journey towards his/her life and hence we celebrate the first birthday, so is the case with marriage anniversaries and so on. Then, the question arises; why do we celebrate it every year? We have already celebrated the beginning of our life. Yes, but celebrating a birthday every year is not just cutting a cake and meeting friends for the sake of celebration, it’s a day between the past and future to remind us the purpose of our birth.

Birth is a beginning,
And death a destination
But life is a journey,
A sacred pilgrimage
Made stage by stage—
From birth to death
To life everlasting.

Source (from Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book)

These words also state the journey of life is achieved in stages.

The first birthdays, anniversaries, institution foundation days are celebrated in a grand manner like there is no tomorrow. The celebration observes a decreasing trend as years’ progress which shouldn’t be a thing. When we were young, we were fond of celebrating our birthdays and as we get older, we don’t celebrate since we are afraid we will not be able to live the past again. We should never be afraid of the past yet ready to serve the ultimate goal.

Mythology also reflects the same in a way: Lord Vishnu reincarnated in different avatars to serve a definite purpose. Lord Vishnu took birth in various forms to accomplish the purpose of lives of all the avatars. The only difference in this analogy is that we don’t know the purpose of our life initially, but as the stages in our life progress, we become more aware of the purpose of life.

We can’t predict how many days we have from the day of our birth, but we can surely make everyday count for the wonderful life and enjoy our birthday every year with the same zeal and enthusiasm. That is the only reason we celebrate our date of our birth viz. birthday and not birth year since it comes each year.

So, “don’t count the days after your birth, make the days’ count”.

Friends – With you, for you and a part of you!

“Friends” – a word which we utter, write and listen indefinitely in our lifetime.

In the 21st century, as we hear the term friends, the first thing that strikes through is the famous web series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The title of this web series always puts you in a fix. Why there are full stops in between all these words? The title should just be friends and not F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Right? There are many theories to justify the title and every theory is right in its own way.

If you ask me, I would rather relate the full stops to different phases of life. The title thus refers to friends we meet in all walks of our life. From our childhood, to schooling, college, office and retirement; we make new friends one by one but also don’t miss out on our old friends.

It is just like tying the links of a chain and not breaking the chain. All links are equally important to form the everlasting chain. Who will know better what it feels like even if one links of the chain is missing than me! I lost a strong link of my chain, my close friend a year before in an accident. We don’t know when the links will break and go away, but always have the opportunity to create a good chain of links in the first place. That’s what we should be grateful for!

In this era, to find good and true friends is the key to happy life. In this technology driven world, we are surrounded by “many” online(bad) and “some” of our offline(good) friends.

The reason I have quoted good and bad in parenthesis is that mostly offline friends are easy to meet, greet and have a one-to-one conversation unlike online ones.

The success mantra to find good friends is to ensure there is a two-way traffic in your friendship. Your friends are not true friends; If they are not with you in your tough times when you need them the most; if they are only in friendship for the sake of their own benefits and turn a blind eye when they are not gaining from the situations, and lastly if they are not a part of all the ups and downs in your life.
In short, true friends are “With you, for you and a part of you.”

So don’t miss out on any of them!