Awesomeness!

It was going to be graduation time round the bend. Many of us were going to get an ominous looking fancy piece of paper soon. If your college is awesome it will say “Level up: Life Skill AWESOME acquired.” 

But for most of us it will just say our name and some words and a two digit summary of our  worth in the past 4 years staring us shamelessly on the face.

When I was an undergrad I remember looking forward to graduation so much. I thought to myself on a regular basis, “Just get through this. When it’s all done you’ll be able to make money and start your life.” By the time that day actually came, I was so underwhelmed with the whole "college experience" that I stopped regretting why we don't have a convocation 'cause most probably I wouldn’t have even bothered to

show up.

At least real life had started. And I was off to the races… not really. In the last six years I’ve met people who are in their late teens who I consider peers and equals; people who organize groups, throw giant successful events and still have time to kick college’s ass; people who make these crazy life altering decisions and go through so much for the sake of upholding a benevolent idea. I’ve learned a little bit from every single one of you. And I need you to know something else: You’ve changed my life. 

Just watching you do what you do has given me so much excitement about the world. You taught me the value of college outside of class when we were hanging out in the canteen, dancing, fighting over choreography, calling dibs over better rooms and bigger chunks of chicken, when we were royally ignoring people (or each other :p), or making up over a pan (yeah not bowl ;)) of hot or cold maggi, watching movies in the theatre or singing together. You taught when we were sharing a million stuff knowingly or unknowingly, when you were silent or grumbling or shouting or just texting "dinner?", "Canteen. step up 4 trailer. Awesome" "dup?" "chotto meye" (lil girl, in bengali) and so on and so forth.

Each one of us has some shortcomings and some redeeming qualities about us while some are kind or creative or funny or headstrong or whatever (the list of adjectives goes on and on..), some among these multitudes are good at BEING AWESOME.

What is BEING AWESOME, you ask? Well, there no 1

way to answer that but you can always try reading on:

And so I give you the 7 commandments of Being Awesome:

1. Be a dork. (or in another way Embrace who you are.)

A person who confidently accepts that he/she likes to read is always cooler than a person who wears a gothic Tee and gets hammered for the sake of trying to look cool.

2. Say YES to new things.

They take challenges head on.

3. Don’t take criticism personally.

They don't crib or whine about it on Facebook or twitter (in short the social media). They Listen. Process. Learn. Improve. Thank. <like I'm doing now  :p lol>

4. Embrace failure.

For every 1 good idea there are 10 bad ones to pull it back but these people say "F*ck the haters" and go on.

5. Persevere

They never give up without a fight. And they are amaaaaazing fighters (better than the spartans!)

6. Give everyone a chance.

I noticed something interesting about the people I consider to be excellent — they hang out with everyone. They have the oddest friends and they love them all. This gives them access to all sorts of strange worlds and social circles. Best friends come from strange and unexpected places so try not to judge anyone before you get to know them. This has a cool side effect too — when you try to see the positives in other people instead of judging them harshly, the voice that thinks other people are judging YOU harshly tends to shut up.

7. Life starts today.

Above all else, they realize that they’re already the person they hope to become more or less. They stopped waiting ages ago. Waiting for some day to come when someone else gives you a permission slip to live or validate your existence is a sure-fire one-way ticket to S*cksville.

This stuff is easy. Being awesome doesn’t depend on your parents, or the amount of money you have, or what you’re good at. All you need to do is make the decision to behave in a manner that is more awesome. Saying yes is only a little different than saying no.If you can figure out how to stop listening to the voice in your head that is afraid of the unknown and instead say, “F*ck it, from now I’m gonna be awesome,” then you’ll be on your way to kicking ass in no time.

I can actually guarantee that.

So yeah you guys Thanks!

#LiveItUp \m/

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

"It's hard to be taken seriously when you don't have connections. And unfortunately, when you don't have connections, it seems like the only people you can connect with are other people who don't have connections.” said a random man in New York. He seemed normal and good looking and I bet even handsome if he smiled.

There is a very inspiring page in Facebook- the social networking giant called “The Humans of New York” which today I explored on the recommendation of a good friend of mine. I was glued to the testimonials of the various ordinary people and how they fought losses, tragedy, abuse, fear, pressure, confusion and the various other vices of the societies of this world with love, tongue-in-cheek humour, beyond-the-years smartness and most of all smiles and courage. They were remarkable in more ways than one.

I mean I have some pretty dark corners in my life too and I am sure we all have. We live in an age where we live dual lives even before knowing that we do. There’s one life where we are pristine characters with respect to everything, where we bow and smile and greet and are the so-called good kids of our parents. And there is the other that contains all the complicated gross stuff that we won’t even dare to discuss with anyone.

It is quite an unforgiving world that we live in, where the lights are blinding outside but inside the blackness is sickening. “Nobody cares”, we often complain but forget to ask ourselves “Do we?” Everyone is juggling trying to really live instead of just blatantly existing (as those who believe in “live, don’t just survive” are supposed to be cool!) with keep oneself from drowning in his own sea of demons.

Sure, a lot of things around us are impersonal but boundaries don’t divide us. Much like the people of New York, there are tons of inspiring people here in India too and all over the world. We are united in our difficulties, sadness, courage, and quest for survival, journey to fulfil our dreams and want to leave a mark. It’s a fine line between despair and hope and though self-pity is an easy way out and we often see the negativities around us and people plagued by it, that’s only half the truth. A good number dwell on the other side too and that’s heartening to see.

It’s the journey that matters not the results! We spend too much time on just one question “to be or not to be?” and lose out on so many thing. Time slips by and we forget to be happy, crazy, inspired and a million other things just worrying about millions of other stupid things.

LOVE J

We never lose to love, we lose by holding back.

ADITI

A valentine's for all of us!

So I was watching T.V. and 'The Middle' was on. For those of you who don't know-it's a series with  a bunch of weird characters whom if you come across while playing with the remote just to pass time, will probably keep skip channels without a second thought; but since I had taken a pledge (not so long ago) to give every-thing/one a chance before jumping into conclusions, decided to stick around for the first 10 minutes and Voila!!! A really sweet, light, funny entertainer was discovered (of course by me! duh!).

The episode today centered around the lately-much talked-about Valentine's Day. While the husband and wife in the episode grappled with 'How to celebrate the day this year', their 9 year old son grappled with how to come up with enough credible matter for his paper due next week and he had to get an A but the catch was the topic "The importance of Valentine's Day". Wasn't that a bit too heavy on a 9 year old? 

By the time the episode neared it's end my mind was spinning! Food for Thought: What indeed is the importance of this D-day that many keep waiting for while other curse at it's arrival!? There are so many opinions and judgments revolving around the way it is celebrated. Some buy expensive gifts and feel their work is done while some suffice with just a rose; then there are some who make elaborate projects out of making cards or handcrafting presents for their loved ones yet there are also some who meticulously go about planning an entire day (getting presents, flowers, champagne, movie tickets, dinner reservations so on and so forth), arguably a perfect day and the rest some just end up doing nothing.

When the little voice in their head tells them, "Don't you think you should do something?", they go "Naaaah ... my partner's awesome he/she already know how much I love him/her!! We don't need showy rituals!?!"

WHAAAAT SERIOUSLY???????? 

So now the question is in which category of these "Some" do you fall in?

Of course there's love 24x7, 365 days a year even when we are grumbling or fighting but isn't it worthwhile to be excited about this one day to celebrate your bittersweet love?

No one feels special every single day so would it really hurt to take the effort to make someone feel special for at least a day? So what's so difficult about spreading some happiness and being happy in the process? It is never about the money but about little gestures, which do happen unexpectedly now and then but we are just a bunch of lazies and busies to notice even if it stared us right in the face. We pass them by without so much as a 'Thank You'

So yes a Valentine's Day is necessary 'cause that's the only time of the year we our eyes (and minds) are open to what might happen 'cause we are wired that way. Wired to remember a few days that we expect to be memorable and valentine's is one of those few apart from our birthday. It's not necessarily about romance, it's a father's day mother's day friendship day all rolled into one. It's about a letter or a card, about togetherness and a walk-down-memory lane.

We always bring our best to people who don't even last in our lives even a month 'cause we are touchy about our "image", but how about bringing our best to people who really matter?! We are never going to say "that particular Thursday in September was a great surprise. Thanks!" <smiles> But we always say "Last year's Valentine's s*cked. Nothing happened"

So make it happen. If not for others then for yourselves. Like the closing line from that 9 year old's paper rightly said "Great stories are not made of great stuff, they are made of little gestures!"

Spread the Love

Rainbows and Cookies

Have a Happy Valentine's

ADITI :)