What is Passion???

Friends,

As I am busy finishing up two projects, I did not have any time to write blogs even though I have a lot of requests on topics and I have few things already in mind after reading couple of blogs by Sangeetha...

Will definitely write my next blog soon.  This 'soon' is going to be around mid July, since I will be on travel in USA from Saturday.

In the meantime, I saw my daughter, Abinaya, writing below in her Facebook.  Thought I will share this with you all here....

Good job Abi... Kudos to you! :)

********* PASSION - Written by Abinaya Kannan ************

It’s a word with a profound meaning. Passion is a compelling or powerful emotion or feeling. It’s a feeling that drives you crazy. It could be about anything. You could be passionate about writing, dancing, singing or even, programming!

Passion is a feeling that drives life. It moves us forward towards our goal, keeps us focused, helps overcome obstacles and feel contended and happy with life.

But, in today’s world, money and opportunity has replaced passion. Passion does not only need to be in your hobbies. It should be a part of your everyday life, the job that you do, and the course that you study. There is always that one thing that makes our heart throb with happiness and we are always eager to do something in it. That should our path of life. Fine arts do not need to be a hobby only. This is a misconception. Dancing, singing, writing, etc. can very well be career choices in our life. You might not end up like Asha Bhosle, Yamini Krishnamurthy or John Grisham, but the happiness derived out of pursuing something close to your heart is exponential.

If your passion lies in cars and you are not sure if there is a future ahead in that field, go ahead study a course about automobiles and pursue a career in it. Life is not about money alone. It is about doing things that make you happy. Ambition and passion are words with more profound meanings than money.

My mom and I have frequent arguments on this topic. Whenever anybody happens to tell my mom about the limited scope in Aeronautical Engineering, my mom hypes up and asks me why I had to take up that course. When I happen to tell my mom the passion and interest I have in that field, my mom immediately retaliates about how money is more important. She tells me how I cannot fulfill my demands without it. Yes, I completely agree with you, mom. But, can money buy me passion? Can it alone make me happy?

The richest people in the world are not happy ONLY because they are rich, they are happy because they listened to their hearts. They pursued their passion or put in passion in whatever they had to do. When you look back at life, it’s not money or property that’s going to make you smile. It’s what you did with your life that’ll make you beam, cause only then will you have lived a life with no regrets!
Money is a by-product of our hard work, passion and all the time we invested in something. Money alone should not make you happy, the work out of which you gained money should make you happy!
In short, all I’m saying is pursue you passion.

"There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart."
- Ben Crenshaw

Now.. That’s what PASSION is about. :)

This is just my opinion. Please feel free to comment about yours.

Technology – Boon or curse??

No doubt the technology world is improving every day.  We have new inventions on almost daily basis.  The human race is running to invent new things as if there’s no tomorrow.

Is all these technologies are really a boon in our life or is it a curse where in we have lost good personal time?

Till about 1996, cell phones were very rare commodity.  Today, how many are there in the world without a cell phone?   I still distinctly remember – In 1996, I visited the GITEX exhibition (world’s second largest computer/IT exhibition) in Dubai and was carrying my office cell phone.  Our office (with about 100 employees at that time) had only one cell phone and whoever needed it to carry with them for official reason should get approval from management and do so.  Many people in the exhibition hall were very impressed that I had a cell phone (huge Motorola phone with huge antenna).

But today, many people have 3 or 4 cell phones along with other accessories (like iPad, iPod, etc.).  How much have we personally gained from these technological advancements?

Weren’t we happy when we had no cell phones and we did not carry work home?  Once you leave the office, that’s the end of workday.  But in today’s environment, almost every one of us works 24/7.  What you call this?  Advancement or technology eating away our personal time?

There was a time when I worked almost 24/7. Thanks to Blackberry and all other gadgets, which never allowed me to think outside of office issues.  But now, I’ve made a conscious decision of not checking my mails after I walk out of office or when I’m in a party or something.  But still the habit keeps creeping back up when I want to check my office mails.

Trust me, I am not against inventions and not against technology being used in modern day activities.  But, why should we use technology by compromising some of the pleasures of life?

Assume we are playing with our children and they start to tell a story or trying to tell what they did during day, the phone rings?  Why should we stop the child and upset the child to take an official call?  Why not we be like our previous generation, where the work ended at office and they had time to spend with us?

With this technological advancement, now lot of gadgets are much more affordable.  Good thing that we can use and enjoy the technology.  But what has happened in the end?  We buy gaming consoles, cell phones and computers with Internet access to our children also.  How many of current generation children play outdoor sports?  Their idea of weekend is becoming glued to computer screens, playing video games, online games, browsing the net, etc.  Is this healthy development?

I believe that we as parents should ensure proper control so that the children are not spoilt with technology and forget some good things they can enjoy as children (which many of us enjoyed during our childhood days).  Relate this to the blog I posted earlier titled “how much to load on our children”.  Read the comments I’ve received on that blog.  Many of us are guilty of not checking with our children on what they wanted to do. 

Above statement is becoming true due to the fact that we are becoming slaves of technology and have no time for family, fun, etc. like we used to do in the past.  Due to this, we make children feel better by giving them the gadgets… Is it good?

I asked my younger daughter just before her 3^rd birthday about what gift she wants for her birthday.  She said “I need mobile with camera”… Good to know that technology has reached a 3 year old.  But when we were 3 year old, the maximum we would have asked is for “dress, chocolate, sweets, etc.”… Not a mobile phone with camera.

Another problem I see with technology getting better and better is that we do not want to remember many things like we used to do.  I used to remember at least about 50 telephone numbers related to my work, personal, etc.  But today, I can hardly remember about 10 numbers since I can easily dial them by going into “contacts” in my phone.  So, we are getting lazy with the technology getting advanced and we getting addicted to it.

I am not saying everybody is guilty of this.  But many of us are…

How many of us write using the good old technique of paper and pen?  We type SMS, email, etc. and have almost forgotten the art of letter writing.  How many of us write letters anymore?  I am not even sure if post offices in India sell post cards or inland letters anymore.  While writing this, I am thinking if my daughter knows what or how inland letters look like. 

One thing I ensure in my office during my training sessions is that everybody has to write notes.  Also, to test the knowledge of my team, I give them tests and I want them to write answer sheets so that nobody goes out of touch with writing.  Look at the way we write nowadays, thanks to SMS and other short versions: “Can u come b4 7?”, “gr8 to meet u”.  What happened to our writing?  Has technology made us more lazy and lesser competent in the language skills?

This slavery to technology is a vicious cycle.  Very close resemblance to my blog regarding “wants and needs”.  We need to draw a line and stay within the line so that we enjoy best of both worlds.  Nobody can judge how much technology the other person needs to conduct his life.  We should be our own judges.

From today, I am going to seriously look into the technology I am using and see how else I can overcome that by going back into old methods what our ancestors used.  If I succeed in anything, I will share my experience in the blog.

If I do not succeed, after all I am a person living in 21^st century!!! :)

Any thoughts from my friends on this?

My life in transition

 This is another writing from my daughter Abinaya Kannan.  Since she has written it well, thought I will publish this in my blog...


Kudos to you Abi... Well written (both the articles).... :)




************* 
My life is in transition.  I’m moving towards a new phase in my life.

I’ve graduated high school & am going to step into college. I’m going to get rid of this ‘TEENAGER’ tag, as I’m almost 18. A young adult.

I’ve crossed many phases with different emotions. I’ve moved on from an infant to a baby, baby to a child, child to a teen & now, am moving forward in life. Though I am not aware of all the emotions, I can feel what the transition phase is putting me through.

Right now, I am uncertain about the future, confused, got my heart set at my goal & waiting to push through all that life has to offer me.

Transition is a part of life & with it comes adapting to the new ‘you’. Being a teenager gave me a greater sense of freedom & independence. It also brought in me the want to enjoy life & a sense of a little carefree nature. My parents molded me to the person I am today. Now, it’s my turn to mold my life to the form I want it.

Stepping into college makes me feel like I’m responsible for my life. It makes me more ambitious, assertive, independent & invokes in me the attitude to excel. College might be the place to have fun, as rules are broken & classes bunked. But it is also the place that will shape the future. It is what I do here that will determine how I will be decades down the line.

I didn’t achieve what I am capable of for the past two years. And right now, I’m glad I didn’t, as I have a greater urge to excel. I should be thankful that I have parents who will go to any extent to get me what I wish for. I’ve learned a lot over the past two years. When you’re easy on life, it gets infinitely harder on you. The path of life should be in your hands. Yes, be a path breaker.

I don’t know if this is what every teenager goes through when they’re entering college. I don’t know whether they enter with dreams to achieve. I don’t know if temptations take the better of them or whether their will power isn’t strong enough. But I just know what I am made of. I know where I want to be a decade down the line. I know that I listen to my heart more than my mind. If my heart lies in doing something, I know it’s close to me having achieved it!

It’s difficult for me to set my heart & mind into doing something, to tune into the essence of my life. But, only when a bee sucks a flower, there is pollen, nectar & finally, sweet honey. Only when life grinds you, your true capabilities are shown and life ends up being sweet honey.

Coming back to my life, I know that I’ve wanted to do Aeronautical Engineering, since I knew to dream. I’ve always had a knot in my stomach (in a good way!), a wide-open mouth, glittering eyes, a child’s fascination and a zap into the future, every time I’ve seen an aircraft. I’ve imagined myself in the cockpit, in charge of the beautiful machine, an instrument in my hands. Now’s the chance for me to achieve what I want.

Yes, my life is in transition, but I’m more confident about making this transition the best that has happened to me. A lot of my friends are getting into college & I hope they have the brightest future possible!

After all, it’s your life. You can make it or break it. Make it phase of your life favor you! 

What is Life???? A 17 year old's perspective

Friends... Over the weekend (I am in Dubai so Friday and Saturday are the weekends) I was thinking about few things to share in this blog.  Came online to check the status of my blog, visitors, comments, etc. and then to start writing.


Was pleasantly surprised to see that my daughter, Abinaya Kannan, have written an essay (sort of) in her Facebook and tagged me in that.  Read the essay and thought I will just share it here instead of me writing anything.


What you see below is as written by her (except few corrections by me for typo).  


*********** LIFE - By Abinaya Kannan ***************


Life's a beautiful gift from the Almighty. It has to be lived to it's fullest worth. Each person has the right to live life the way they want to, but always remember to live without regrets. Because twenty years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than the things that you did. So, EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. Always love yourself, trust your choice & EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. To accomplish great things in life, we must not only ACT, but also DREAM, not only PLAN, but also BELIEVE.
Never be afraid to cry. Your tears are only warm drops of light that remind you how to feel. Do not be afraid to laugh, for that is the sound of a world that cares. Do not be afraid to care. It is only by caring that you do what must be done. Never ever be afraid to STAND OUT.

There are many ways to live life. You can fall in love or fall in hate, you can get depressed or you can get inspired. You can ace a test or flunk a class. You can speak the truth or lie & cheat. You can dance on the tables or sit in a corner. Life is divine chaos. EMBRACE IT. FORGIVE YOURSELF. Breathe.. And enjoy the ride. The choice is yours.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will even forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. MAKE PEOPLE FEEL LOVED. Let them know that they are cared for & that they are special. Cause sometimes, all that a person needs is a hand to hold & a heart to understand. :)
Life lives, Life dies. Life laughs, Life cries. Life gives up & Life tries. All I'm trying to say is that life looks different through everyone's eyes. So, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the potential in a person. Let everyone live life to the best of their capabilities.

Learn from failures. Always keep trying, for the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Make mistakes, but always remember that FAILURE IS AN EVENT & IT IS NOT YOU.
I've loved my life, I've lived it, I've lied, I've hurt people, I've lost & gained, I've trusted, I've been betrayed.. Yes, I've made mistakes. Most of all, I'VE LEARNED FROM MY MISTAKES.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. But then, I can't find the reason in some cases. At such times, I just tell myself that what's done is done. YOU HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD IN LIFE. You can't keep looking back. After all, it's just a chapter in the past. But don't close the book, just turn the page.

NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT TROUBLES. For they are not troubles, but CHALLENGES. Challenges are what makes life interesting. And it is only overcoming them that makes life meaningful. So, face challenges, show it what you’re made of!

Learn to be contended with what you have, but NEVER STOP DREAMING. There is nothing wrong with wanting more.
Sometimes in life, you do not get what you want & you get things that you can't believe to possess. LIFE IS FULL OF SURPRISES. You never know how much you'll miss something, until you lose it. So, hold on to your loved ones & things that are important to you.

Never predict your future. Just CREATE IT.

In this world, you can be anybody. You can be a Marilyn Monroe, a Mother Teresa, a Mukesh Ambani, a Ratan Tata, a Sachin Tendulkar.. But why be somebody else, when you can BE YOURSELF? Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of somebody else!

Want to know how to be yourself, if your not accepted as you?  Be who you are & say what you feel, because THOSE WHO MIND DON'T MATTER & THOSE WHO MATTER DON'T MIND.

We are who we are for a lot of reasons, & maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can feel good about them. ♥

Some pursue happiness while others create it. Belong to the latter & SHARE YOUR JOY with others!
ALWAYS CHOOSE.. to live by choice, not chance; to make changes, not excuses; to be motivated, not manipulated; to be useful, not used; to excel & not compete. Always choose to have self-esteem & not self-pity. CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE and not the random opinions of others.

You have THREE CHOICES: give in, give up or GIVE IT YOUR ALL.

Life is never easy; it isn't about finding who you are, but CREATING WHO YOU WANT TO BE. The most important things in life aren't things. You are more important than them. Make the important a PRIORITY in your life & not an option. Every story has an end; but in life, there are no ends. Just beginnings.

Sometimes in life, you have to hit the lowest point of being sad, where you can't take it anymore & you completely lose yourself, to get back on your feet again. Without fear, there would be no accomplishment & no testing our limitations. FACE FEAR & THE FEAR WILL VANISH.

Don't dwell on the past. Your history can't be erased, but your future is yet to be written. MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN, instead of worrying about what you can't change. Don't waste your time being sad, because your wasting away moments in which you could BE HAPPY.

Always LIVE LIFE, A DAY AT A TIME. Do not grieve over the past for it has gone; & do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. LIVE IN THE PRESENT and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.

NEVER BE AFRAID TO TAKE CHANCES. Life is about trusting our feelings & taking chances, losing & finding happiness, appreciating memories & learning from the past. In life, it doesn't matter how long you take to get where you want, as long as you get there.

The purpose of life is to live it, to TASTE EXPERIENCE to the utmost, to reach out eagerly & without fear for newer & richer experiences. Always remember that who you are is more important than what you look like. The beauty inside will never equal the made-up beauty outside. FEEL BEAUTIFUL and you will eventually end up looking beautiful. :)
If life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, brood or be sad, show life that you have a thousand reasons to SMILE.

I'd like to end by saying that life comes with no guarantee, no time outs & no second chance. You just have to LIVE life to the fullest, LAUGH as much as you can, spend money, tell someone what they mean to you, tell someone off, speak out, DANCE in the pouring rain, HOLD someone's hand, comfort a FRIEND, have fun, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, SMILE until your face hurts, don't be AFRAID to take chances or fall in LOVE and most of all, live in the moment, cause when you look back someday, knowing you have NO REGRETS, it's going to be that what's going to make you smile! :) 

******************

Wants and Needs

What is “want” and what is “need”? Many of us (that includes me as well) seem to have confusion between the wants and the needs.

For me personally, I would classify “want” and “need” as below:

WANT – Something we want to have but not necessary to have.  For example, I have a normal TV at home but I want a nice 100” plasma or LCD TV.  It is not required that I should have it for having to conduct my routine life.

NEED – Something I definitely need in my day-to-day life.  For example, like a large family we are, we need good amount of furniture in our living room as against very simple couple of chairs.  This is a need as we spend a lot of time with friends and relatives in the living room and it should be comfortable for both the guests and the hosts.

Lot of us, most of the time, confuse ourselves between wants and needs and end-up spending a lot of money on things that we do not need.

When we get ourselves confused between wants and needs, that’s a thin line between being ‘needy’ and ‘greedy’ and in many cases, we have the greed factor settling in.  My personal line about greed is “greed takes you to grave”…

I look at my own stuff quite regularly to see where I did misunderstand ‘want’ as ‘need’.  I have so many gadgets and others items with me, which are not used by me regularly.  At some stage I thought I NEED them but it was really a ‘want’ and I ended up buying, which was of no or very little use after some time.  A classic example many of us can relate to ourselves will be mobile phones.  When we see some new make/model, we feel we need it and end up buying the phone, which in essence is of same use as our previous phone.

At some stage, as a human being, if we want something and keep thinking about it, in our mind it becomes we ‘need’ it… So, if we can’t afford, we may end-up buying it on credit card or we may end up working a lot more than normal in order to earn money so that we can afford what we ‘want’…

Before we let our mind thinking something we ‘want’ as we ‘need’ it, why not analyze and decide whether we really need it or is it just another item we want which may or may not be really useful to us?

For people who are fortunate to have a lot of wealth to spend on, these do not apply.  The lifestyle itself becomes different for people who are rich… So, having more than one car is a need for them.  We are talking here only about average middle class family (which is the larger society in India).

Recently I was talking with a friend about this and she gave me an example.  A friend of her works so that she can earn more money and support her husband and live a little comfortable life.  I was told that she earns about $2,500 per month.  But the money she spends on babysitting to take care of her kid and the play school she has to put the school since she cannot be with the kid was around $2,000 a month.

With above being said, why should she work?  If she’s spending $2,000 out of her $2,500 on taking care of kid, she will definitely have more expenses to take care of few needs she will have as a working woman (e.g., nice dress to be presentable, some conveyance needs, occasional eating-out expenses, etc.).  Probably, the additional $500 she has with her is not enough to meet these expenses.

Now, if we talk to her, she may say, “nice dress, nice shoes, baby sitting, play school” are all needs for which she is working.  So, as a human being we all tend to forget why we have some “needs” for which we are struggling to make the ends meet.

I started updating this blog after my recent conversation with a friend (with above example).  But currently we see so many people in many metros of India who are confused between ‘need’ and ‘want’ and struggle to make ends meet.

Having a car (Maruti is no longer the style… We need Honda, Toyota or some other foreign name), having a good big apartment/house, outing every weekend – including parties at pubs/bars, are all becoming ‘needs’ which were not needs till sometime ago.

Also, I believe the concept of ‘want’ and ‘need’ changes depending on the generations.  What our parents wanted has become need for us and probably our children will ‘need’ what we ‘want’ today.

Just because we have created some ‘needs’, we are all under stress to make more money and then run around… By the time we decide it is time to ‘call it quits’ and retire, we may realize all our life we have been running around making money (which never seems to be enough) to have various things that we may or may not need.  Is it really fair for us to run around so much to make more money to buy things, which we do not require?  Why not enjoy life and be content with what we have?

Also, our confusion between want and need are not just materialistic… This want and need can also be intangible between two individuals’ relationship.

 

Any thought processes from my friends on this?

How much to load on our children?

I thought we will share my views a little more about what we do with our children...

I know many parents who want their children to excel in almost every field.  I will not blame any of us as parents to have that dream...  After all, we want our children to be successful in their life.  But, to achieve this why we force so many things on children?

What is extra-curricular activities?  I went to Wikipedia for definition of extra-curricular activities and this is what it is:

Extracurricular activities are activities performed by students that fall outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school or university education. 

Such activities are generally voluntary as opposed to mandatory, non-paying, social, philanthropic as opposed to scholastic, and often involve others of the same age.  

When I was a student, for us extra-curricular activities meant no class, no study, just go out and play.... I played soccer, cricket or any other sport depending on which part of the ground was empty or less crowded...

I have seen quite a few students whose entire day time is packed with various activities including their school and the burden of home work which comes with it.

We all want our children to play cricket and become like Sachin Tendulkar or Kapil Dev. 

We all want our children to learn abacus and other math techniques and become like Sagunthala Devi or Ramanujam.

We all want our children to learn music (vocal, instrument, etc..) and become like Ilayaraja, A R Rahman, SPB, etc.

We all want our children to learn dancing and become like another Padma Subramaniam or our kids starting their own Kalakshetra.

We all want our children to attend drawing classes in the hope one day they will become like M F Hussain (God rest his soul in peace).

Trust me, I am not against dreams of our kids becoming one of these great achievers.  Personally, I myself a big dreamer (gotta blame it on my sun sign !!!!).

But most of the time we decide the extra-curricular courses for our children.  We never ask them what they want to do.

My view on this is that why spend so much time on a these classes and training and pack our children with such a tight schedule when they may not choose any of these as their professional career when they grow up?

Rather, why not leave them (like the good old days when I grew up) to study and play whatever they want with other kids?  Once they grow old enough to think on their own, they can decide on what they want to become in life and then we, as parents, help them get trained on it.   I think this is better than packing them up with so many things in their young age.

My wife always wanted to put our kids in some sort of class (music, dance, painting, etc...) but I made it a point with her and convinced her to ask my kids what they wanted...  I have two lovely daughters who are as confused as me I guess... :)  My elder daughter started going to drawing class for a while and then decided she didn't like it... Decided to take up music (keyboard) and spent quite a bit of time and did well to go through few exams successfully.  Once she entered 10th grade, now that keyboard is just a 'space occupier' in my living room.

My younger one is I think far better in her thinking... All she wants to become is a teacher in life and practices it on her own at home everyday!!!!!  Can't blame a 4 year old who is so independent!!  Now, my worry is she is also following the path of her sister... Started going to drawing class.... This is DeJa Vu for me.... !!! :)  I don't want to end-up buying another piece of music instrument to occupy my living room!

Again, I don't want to waste my readers' time by telling them my stories....

My point is, why not let our children be free and choose what they want?  As parents why not we just assist and advice them in making right choices.  My idea is leave it to the kids and let them choose the line they want to excel in and then as parents let us support them to succeed there...

Any thoughts from my friends?

Impressive so far.... You guys are the best !

Friends, I am really overwhelmed with the amount of visits and reads I have in my blog.  It's been only a week since I started blogging and already have about 300 visitors with record number of 80+ visitors to my blog yesterday alone. 

A big THANK YOU to all of you who visit and read my thoughts... I sincerely appreciate the comments, criticisms and feedback you all leave (both on my blog and offline to me).

I have engaged full time in a new project beginning today and hence I may not be regular in posting blogs for at least next three weeks.  But definitely will work something during the weekends and try to publish as and when I feel the blogs are ready to be here.

At this time, I would like to mention three individuals here who have contributed tremendously in making this blog what it is today.

Sriram - Technically, he is the one who forced me to write my thoughts and feelings about various day-to-day life issues after I published my first few blogs about history of Chennai city, Tamil language, etc... Thanks to Sriram for the input and now I realize there are lot more people who read my blogs after I started sharing my thoughts about these issues.

Anuradha - Anu is my only "Raakhi Sister" and gives a lot of feedback on my blogs (offline - she is very shy to publish them on my blogs!!!!).  She has already given me about 5 topics on which she wants me to write my thoughts and opinions... Many of those are very 'heavy' topics which needs a bit of research and understanding the basic concepts.  As I always said, I am not an expert in any of the topics I'm blogging about and hence definitely those topics are saved in my 'scrapbook' and will be published as and when I am ready.  Thanks to Anu for all the constructive feedback and comments and even proof reading couple of my blogs before they were posted.

Sangeetha - She has been a great help.  She shares all my blogs in her Facebook and Twitter.  I definitely believe that I had so many visitors yesterday because of the referrals I got through Sangeetha.  A big thanks to Sangeetha for the efforts.... :)

I have not spent much time in posting all my previous blogs since my habit is that when I'm very upset and worked-up about an issue is to start typing my opinions and thought processes and save them in my laptop.  This folder with all my writings is what I call as my "scrapbook".  I just re-read the topics from my 'scrapbook' and update with recent relevant details and paste them here as my blog... I need to go through my scrapbook archive to see how many more such write-ups are there and will keep publishing them as and when time permits.

Till I see you all in my next blog, have a great time...