The Season Of Exams

The season of Exams.

Here comes February & March, and everything comes to a stand still.

No extravagant family outing, plans, travelling & commitments.
The focus is only on ONE thing.
And that is, the students preparing for their all important finals & parents-teachers keeping a close watch. (As good as exams for them too :-))

Just went to drop my Son for his 1st exam of XII boards today.
Amazing scene of students & parents all around.

Last minute check-lists being carefully and hurriedly covered.

• The hall ticket,
• The writing board,
• The compass box kit,
• To check whether enough numbers of pens & pencils there,
• To check for water bottle,
• last minute advise on how to approach the paper, how not to leave any question unanswered,
• last minute hugs and kisses...

This is simply amazing.

If we closely look at all these emotions turned into actions, we see there is lots and lots at stakes, lots invested on every student with respect to time, money & energy, not only by the parents, but also by teachers, the institution and the education department.

To see their child passing out with flying colours in all important boards exams, is every parent's dream.
Right from the time the child is put into kindergarten, the immediate destination in mind is STD X & XII boards.
And this we believe, sets the tone for an entry & eventual jump into the career oriented graduation stream.

But, I somehow feel, the things have changed or constantly changing, from the perspective of students.
Students appearing for XII boards seem to be much calmer & confident. One of the reasons may be, it being their second outing & experience of appearing for boards, after X boards. Good for them.

At the same time, I have noticed that most of the students at this stage of their academic pursue are not ready or prepared to commit on any particular onward course of studies.

I remember our school & college days in 1990's, when these used to be our all important stepping stone to launch ourselves for higher studies and which also used to set tone for what we actually wanted to become professionally in the career to follow.
May be, limited choices of academics during those times helped us with better clarity pertaining to the same.

Today, the choices are immense, much beyond usual Science, Commerce & Arts. Each of these primary fields of studies now have umpteenth number of sub-choices, leading to or can say branching out to many unknown and unexplored territories of career & profession.

Every year or an alternate, a new subject, a new stream is launched into the mainframe.
And thus, the approach to look towards academics is changed.

More and more inclination towards liberal arts education is seen, where it offers flexibility to the students with respect to their area of interest & strengths.

But in no way it means that students are not thinking or going for core careers pertaining to medicine, engineering or finance.

Yes there are students with strong grip over technical subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Biology and also much clear about their course of studies to be pursued.
But what I am hinting at is, that the volume of students (would rather mention "unsure" students) is increasing every year, who are ready to throw their weights or experiment on any unusual, little offbeat and apparently challenging stream of academics or profession.
And while choosing so, interestingly, their attention to the "pay pack" is secondary.

In anywayz, not going into much details about the intricacies of various opportunities available in today's times, the fact remains that for us parents, who are with school of conservative thoughts, would like to see our children to be sincere in what they study, sustain focus (feel pity for them in these times of electronic distractions) and have clarity about their future.

And quite obviously, who wouldn't like their child to be consistent enough to walk his path towards secured future which they have seen/dreamt for themselves.

So, between outgoing winter and welcoming of the summer, we have these few dayz, which tests our temperament to the extremes.
Let's keep enjoying these times which give us enough spice & space to talk, argue and debate.
At least it is one thing which invariably unites all the students at one side and all what-so-called chasers at the other. ;-)

Once again, wishing best of the luck to all the students (more of that to the parents) to perform at their best, justifying their abilities.

Small request to all my young friends.
If possible, try to understand at least a little from your parent's perspective, when they are trying to help you to pull yourself out of your compulsive addiction towards electronic gadgets, which you are stuck with even during the times which demands more of your focus and personal attention.

By - Sanjay Jogani
21stFeb'2018
Mumbai. India.
sanjay-jogani.blogspot.com

Disclaimer
Mention about any person, place, event, picture, image or logo; is just for reference purpose to enhance the essence of writing for better presentation. It's not intended to trespass the rights of the original owners.

Wah TAJ !!

WAH TAJ !!

Call it a poem or The Story....

A Christmas to remember, 

WAH TAJ !!

5 years back, on Christmas, I was fortunate to visit THE TAJ MAHAL, the legendary Historic monument at Agra.

Alwayz amazed to see, how a festival diffuses & dissolves the man-made differences & discrimination of caste, creed, colour; name, fame & religion...

Here, I'm longing to see Taj with my eyes, could manage to be there after 4 decades in my life,The TAJ as being promised, turned out to be larger than life,

The Tall as it stands, defying Geometricity, with sheer beauty, grace & elegance,
As white as milk, made of marble slabs meticulously placed and engraved, the one of it's kind in the world,

Lots is said about The TAJ in History, but when you see it in real, it defies History and its angles, such is the aura of this monument.

This is the "poetry of love" given a dimension of touch, beyond just the feel & imagination,You move your fingers on every pillars and the walls, and it takes you back in times, towards the era of it's birth.

Close your eyes & imagine thousands of emotions at work;the idea & the plan,the passion & the fire,the hard-work & the sweat,the smiles on every step moving towards the fulfillment of the mission, to create a wonder to be remembered for the generations to follow, not to mention, a reverential beauty, "The Mansion".

Being there at the time of Christmas, the festival matching the elegance of this marvel, the smiles & happiness in the air around.The Christmas lights, Jingle of the bells and the music in the hearts, made TAJ a gift from SANTA, unwrapped for thousands to get soaked up in the white glow, wondering where the light is coming from, is it the Moon or The TAJ.?

Look at the TAJ and all your questions and the problems become miniature.One gets dumbstruck, with wide open unblinking eyes, bowing in awe and reverence to the beauty in times.

By Sanjay Jogani25.12.2017

Mid-Life

Mid-life

The “Mid-life” in a person’s life tenure, ideally used to be the age within the range, 45-60.
But, in recent times, the lower side of the benchmark has slid further down. It starts showing signs from 35, which is a very unfortunate scenario.

Whatever the reasons or causes we arrive at or contribute to this massive change which is happening, the resultant outcome is a “confused” state of affair, for one & all.

Most of the thoughts, ideas, concepts or planning, do not hold good even for a very short period of time. And some even do not see light of the next day.
Most of the action plans, probably meeting with either temporary successes or failures, are actually jumped into, on sheer intuition, optimism or self- gut instincts.

The accumulation of data and eventual analysing, doesn’t offer a concrete, sure-shot, guaranteed outcome.
Please note, here the words Data & Analysis are purely Non-Business & Non-commercial aspect of life, which otherwise of course has to run on certain technical parameters, formulas and equations to arrive at suitable course of action.

Here we are talking about an average thought-driven mid-age human, possessing basic intellect. The one, who already did spend a good amount of years (almost a decade and half back), on his academic grooming up & getting trained in various other faculties. And now, He or She has a life to sustain with basic comforts, which is driven by the requirements of family, work, health & travel.

They are into their new-range Mid-Life now.

#Vulnerabilities

• The level of inertia has increased. The aspirations are dying dormant death.
• The sense of insecurity & thus the fear has creeped in. Fear of losing what’s gathered & conserved over the years is more evident.
• The trust deficit, even within old relationships and acquaintances has widen. To survive or grow at any cost has pushed most into extremities of principally non-suitable and non-acceptable actions.
• The overall social, economic & political environment is getting spoiled world-wide. Every new day offers more of the uncertain & unpredictable situations to deal with.
• Although, access to every person or a product or a piece of information has increased & has become more convenient, it has it’s positive and not so positive sides. Most of the times, which I have been mentioning time & again, the ideas before it mobilises into initiatives, die pre-mature death on such social media platforms.
• The apprehension & the doubt, about taking a foot forward, getting into action, is prevalent amongst the masses.
• The NO(es) & CAN’T(s) are being backed up with smartly framed excuses. A lame effort is put to justify every such step of moving away from the probable greater possibility.

Before we get into or try to find out a cure to such negativity ruling our conscious, especially during Mid-life, it was important & necessary to list out these vulnerabilities & understand the same from third person perspective.

Passing through such Mid-Life situations are not uncommon.
So take a breather. You are not an exception.

Every one of us, passes through such confusions & fear(s), once in a while for a shorter or a bit longer times. But it’s important to first accept & acknowledge the deficiencies which are getting stored within our minds, eventually becoming our mind-set, a habit which tries to destabilize our intrinsic stronger self.

Once we see & spot the short-comings which are created due to the same, we are ready to face them head-on.

1. The most important thing is to desist getting into inert inertia mode.
2. The finger-tip access of information through tens and hundreds of social media portals, must be made to go through the test of actual action.
3. In English grammar we use the term “gerund”. Wherein verbs like, “know” or “do” are made to function as “Noun” by adding “ing” to these verbs. So one must get into the process of knowing, doing, finding, executing, implementing etc. etc. so as to convert these prospective actions, into real actions on the ground.
4. What we are missing is real action. A real experience. We need to come out of the dream world of store house of gathered information. And try verifying, converting them into real knowledge, acting on the same to achieve desired goal, to reach desired destination. This is what is going to count. This is what is going to move us ahead, make us progress.
5. The self-confidence can only be built, once we decide and try something by our own self. The success & failures are just the relative labels given by the people on the shore, who do not want to get wet into the waters of the ocean.
6. Every decision taken today, every action done today is going to be your most precious treasure, when you shall have nothing around you, but just “memories”. Only the things you have done with your own hands, with your own minds, with your instincts, with you own judgements are going to make you proud.
7. Of course, few of the plans & actions do need being in a Team, to work as a Team. But one needs to shine brightly in the team by taking on responsibilities on their shoulders and not avoiding or moving away from it. This in itself is an action which is driven by self-conviction.
8. Rather than spending time on the social media platforms by forwarding & posting stories and messages and getting amazed by them, why not we try to be “the story” ourselves? And not become those, who like to enjoy the snow-peak mountain without having the feel of snow in their hands, who gets happier to see a beautiful sunrise and sunset from the photo-shopped images, rather than walking an extra mile to experience the same with their own eyes.
9. The palm-top gadgets are just a mere source of convenient communication. Those shouldn’t be taking away life out of your limbs. Such a state can be better explained being similar to semi-conscious paralytic state. When you are deep immersed inside your 3x5 gadgets, your brain doesn’t allow your limbs to move & respond to real life calls.
10. Last but not the least, the way we have experienced our child-hood times of lovely memories which still brings tears of joy, evolving into our adult-hood, building life-long friends, & getting into beautiful relationships filled with fresh zeal to perform, to act; eventually had to pave way to the next. Likewise, the “Mid-life” phase is eventually poised to make way for something new, something higher, and may be something more beautiful.

Let’s make this “Mid-life” just a notion of subject matter interest & pull ourselves out of it’s clutches.

Why not make it one of the most beautiful times of our life, as this is the only period, where knowledge meets maturity, passion meets patience, love meets respect, craving for money becomes creating wealth, insanity meets common sense and it’s the only phase which bridges our past and the future, together.

Let’s learn to swim over these turbulent waters and surf through the same, rather than struggling to keep ourselves afloat.

By – Sanjay Jogani
16^th September-2017

(Compulsive) Labelling

(Compulsive) Labelling

Lately, have been witnessing extreme “labelling” (being judgemental about almost every small statement, deeds or actions) by a few, either to each-other or within a group of small Socio-community circle.

Why someone would compulsively label & thus be constantly judgemental about someone’s nature, thoughts, behaviour & action?

This has become all the more prevalent in this age of social media, where your silence is labelled as arrogance, or being indifferent, or as ignorance or may be as being dull.

It seems everyone here is hell-bent on somehow trying to be too visible in order to get attention for their presence, thus justifying and winning a label or two from the other members of the social media community.

I personally believe, everyone has their own choices & moods. Their own beliefs. Their own liking & dis-liking. And thus, their own experiences.

Why would anyone want or say expect the other, to be responding to their wishes & acts, and label them as right or wrong, good or bad, smart or dull, purely based on their own perceptions & understanding of the situation?

Why anyone is asked to be imperative to respond to every question raised?

There are certainly more provisions, options & choices, beyond & above just being mere affirmative or negative on our responses. Wherein, as an individual every one can choose to be silent, choose to be not so proactive and even, choose to be not responding at all.

I was getting curious to know why such type of behaviours are getting more & more styled obvious and being followed blindly by one and all, like a flock of herd.

And, I believe, the answer lies somewhere within, in the trend & tendency of an individual, to get into “loop of mutual admiration”, out of one’s own reservations, limited perceptions & thus some sort of insecurity.

Could it be stated as lack of confidence about one’s own identity?

Now the valid question is, who doesn’t like being noticed, being appreciated & admired, getting approved & being followed?

But in fact, as one is (over)exposed in their capacity, capability, style & behaviour, in the process to expand their network, on/through various social media presences, they actually tend to become more susceptible & vulnerable to scrutiny for their every word & thought.

And let’s accept & remember the fact, that, “Bigger” the network, doesn’t imply “closer”.

Thus, here under extreme scrutiny one undergoes constant scanning of prying eyes. One mistake & tens of good deeds of wisdom get erased & forgotten & propagated at a faster pace due to advent & evolution of social networking medium. So such a situation (may be) makes one apparently highly insecure about their position, relationship & status vis-à-vis others, within the same circle.

Now this apparent insecurity may be the factor which acts as a catalyst, prompting one to often keep mechanically responding, pleasing, admiring & applauding a few, just to step into equal & opposite “mutual admiration web”.

This doesn’t imply that such an act of giving attention & words of appreciation and admiration, is always robotic or not heartfelt.

But sometimes, seemingly, irrelevant, in-significant, un-important statement or the event, which otherwise do not deserve to be or need to be even mentioned in any of the social media public platforms; gets noticed & responded, eventually being followed & sequentially falling into line of response(s) one after the other.

(No offence here to hurt any sentiments. It’s purely prerogative of an individual’s perception).

Being an integral part of this society ourselves, & carrying responsibility for the Gen-Next of our families, it somehow, prompts us to think little harder & contemplate about what type of web are we all getting trapped into?

Whether & 

• Does the mention of certain statement or an act or the post actually needs to be shared, blindly & so often, on such mediums?
• Does such sharing(s), really invokes the interests of anyone in the group or improves upon any of the current situations?
• Does it brings about or paving way for higher wisdom, awareness, or in anyways positively adding to the existing knowledge?

Or 

Is it just that the posting & response to the same is, (maybe) an automatic mechanical compulsive response (I have started calling it as Robotic), so that by attending to his/her post may allow you to reserve a few of their responses for your future posts & uploads?

To me, it sounds and seems, utterly silly & ridiculous.

I repeat, this is the result or an outcome of an im-matured handling & understanding of (evolved) technology.

Every individual is suddenly stark naked within their own created web.

Let’s be little more responsible.

There is something like a “A personalized Private Living”.

We all have our own private lives to live for. Our close families, who actually needs our real, pure, honest attention & response.

Why not keep & apply our storehouse of never-ending flow of messages (forwards) of wisdom, in our own lives, for our very own immediate family with whom we are, what we actually are?

It’s said that the message forwards which are repeatedly referred, re-iterated, stressed upon by anyone, on any social media group or a platform, is (actually) one of the weal-links of the same person referring to it, again & again.

• It’s like if I have hundreds of ways to advise about how one should have peaceful sleep at night, implies that I am already struggling with the same, myself.
• It’s like if I keep advising innovative ways of keeping fit and being healthy, may imply that I myself is already struggling at that front.
• It’s like convincing our own self about few things & few ways, we think & we desire.

Good. No harm in that. 
But the point is, that there are few actions, few decisions, few commitments & stands, one needs to take & implement it themselves for their own good, and try to achieve small goals in that direction, rather than putting up, sharing up & advising so much to get attention and “thumbs up” for every mention about the same in multiple social media outings.

Why do we can’t resist the tendency of getting into justifying & judging every act and event and in that case, even a person around us?

Such a tendency is detrimental to any relationship.

Everyone has a situation & circumstances of their own. Social, economic, psychological, emotional resistances & short comings of their own.

How could one be judgemental about the successes and failures of others & make a law out of it?

How could similar set of preconceived, prejudiced, actions & responses bring about desired outcomes for someone else with different set of parameters & altogether different plane of reference?

About finding a perfect relationship and getting judgemental about everyone coming into your life, a wonderful sequence is shown in a Shahrukh-Aalia starrer movie “Dear Zindagi…”

On Aalia raising doubt & disappointment about not finding Mr Perfect, Shahrukh replies :

Why hunting for just ONE special rishta?

Life mein there are & can be so many special rishtas.

Alag alag ehsaas ke liye, alag alag special rishte..

Like special musical rishta (same music taste), special gossip rishta, like special intellectual rishta, special coffee rishta…

Sab rishton ke ehsaas ki responsibility, ye burden kisi ek rishte par dalna…A bit unfair you know!! :)”

This may imply, restricting ourselves & calling the shots from within our own comfort zones, how can we keep asking/expecting for similar types of ehsaas (feelings) from every person we meet?

One has to accept & understand that life is made up of various cycles. Ups-downs, happy-sad, laughs-cries, motivated-depressed, simple-subtle, success-failure, easy-challenging.

And in different set of situation, there may be different kind of relationships whose presence needs to be acknowledged & appreciated.

• If someone can make you laugh, then may be the other person beside him/her who has the capacity to stand by you in your moments of cry.
• If someone is intellectual to be able to offer solution to every problem of yours, there may be somebody beside his/her who would stand by you when in spite of super guidance you fail & feel down and out.
• If someone keeps praising (flatters) you, may be to make you feel always special, there may be somebody beside his/her who would understand the real you, and smiles with you when you are not feeling loved about your own self.
• If someone has flowery words and answers for all your questions and statements, then there may be somebody beside him/her who would silently watch your eyes and understand that every doubts, every question, doesn’t need answers. May be just holding hand is enough.
• If someone is not visible enough physically, when others are constantly hovering around you, just take a moment of pause to think, that did you find that face & image behind you, beside you, when u actually needed them? If the answer within you is “YES”, then do not bother if you don’t see them in regular cycles. They may have something more important to attend to. Everyone has their own life and as mentioned earlier, their own set of situations to deal with. So don’t (never) jump on being judgemental about them.

Let’s accept - 

• Few things in life are eternal & natural.
• Few people in life are, just there, just like that. They are not to be made to pass through the test of our eyes, thoughts & desires.
• Few acts & events are just there, as they are, not to be analysed & justified, based on our ignorance & limited perceptions.

By too much of aggressive labelling & being judgemental about everything, though unknowingly, or may be unintentionally too, we create an atmosphere where few of our near & dear ones start feeling suffocated. It’s beyond them to become a part of our big-bang shouts & thus they do not have an option, but to keep withdrawing from every such situation which is beyond them to get adjusted to. And gradually in no time, we shall have many such individuals, leading a lonely life of their own, carrying various kinds of labels as burden on their back.

So, actually the technological medium(s) which are being created with a vision & intention to bring the world closer, to connect with each other, may actually generate more of the loners, by our ignorance & mis-use of these platforms to ultimately have AN EXACT OPPOSITE OUTCOME.

• Let’s stop putting & pulling anyone & everyone into specific brackets or class.
• Let’s stop being always critical & extremely judgemental about anybody, or in that case any events or happenings.
• Let’s respect & honour the law of nature & sensitize ourselves by being a good spectator, a good intent listener & be empathetic & humble with our words & deeds.

Wisdom says, no one can disturb & disrupt you, unless you yourself allow them to. True. It’s none of our business to see what others are doing and why? But in actuality, we haven’t yet reached that state of being completely in control, where we can keep & remain fully detached & unaffected, along with & besides all the attachments and connected-ness that we live our lives with.

I strongly believe,

EVERYBODY NEEDS SPACE TO BREATHE & ALLOW THEM THEIRS.

By- Sanjay Jogani – 15th June-2017
#AViewPoint

Dealing with CRISIS (A part of Life)

Dealing with CRISIS...a part of life

Our existence in this world vis-à-vis other co-existences is nothing beyond our part of the representation. 

We, as responsible citizen of the globe, try to contribute in and play our role in the manner, the best we can. 

Of course this presentation by us has innumerable influences and experiences attached to it, which eventually throws our personal perspective into the system.

Now the word “personal perspective” is significant.

If every “thinking” human being acts and reacts only with their own perspectives, there are bound to be conflict of interests, difference of opinions, acceptance and rejections, approvals and disregards, likes and dislikes etc..

The “crisis” we know about and what we usually pass through in life, is mostly based on such conflicts of contrasts. 
This can be inner as well as outer. 
The experience from within or with the world outside.

I firmly believe, that it’s important to first know and understand the "source" of various crisis, we as Human beings, experience during the journey of life.

As we talk about the journey of life, birth cycles, we step into the world with few of the connections (relationships) pre-fixed & assigned with our first breathe. 

These are that of mother and father, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters. 
It’s like, as if the supreme energy (Almighty) above us all, so very well knows, that we shall need few of them to fall back upon, to depend upon, at various stages and phases of life.
And besides above, during the period of our growing up, we further make more of such associations, based on and in line with our various activities and interests, may it be in school or at work, through many societal connections, and even sometimes with no visible reasons, just through few personality influences.

Simpler crisis, in today’s world, which I believe, is generally that of pertaining to food, shelter, education, career and finance; which can be handled by/through various helping hands and may not need to be relied upon on any particular person or group.

In most cases, the parents, spouse, teachers and friends respectively can hold our hands and make us sail through difficult times.

But, there are also crisises which are sometimes beyond any specific person’s reach and control. Wherein, in spite of so many well-wishers and helping hands around us, sometimes it keeps getting tougher and deeper. Complex and critical.

I shall refer to such a situation as terminal kind of crisis.

From my experience, I believe, that the most intensifying factor which an individual goes through during such turbulent times is “The Fear”. 

The fear of the known as well as of the unknown. 
The fear of the present happenings in front of his/her eyes and the fear of anticipation of the worst for the future,

The wonderful relationships which we are associated with, are of course there to console & guide us. And it most certainly does make us feel extremely good & relieve us of some immediate pains and move our thoughts away from the source of crisis, but for a short period of time. 
It’s temporary.

And thus, the need to search for a permanent, more stable & dependable method.

I have passed through a few of such times in my life where I feared the worst. Couldn’t sleep for nights. Was under mental stress and pressure. Every morning seemed torturous and nights monstrous. 
During these times, as mentioned above, the wonderful people around me, did their possible best, with utmost care. 

They tried their ways by bringing in best accessible wisdom through best of their expertize, ability and capacity. 
Heart-felt thanks to all of them who stood by me, when I needed them the most. 
I love them all and promise to be there with them, in their needs.

But by all practical means in today's times, it's not possible for any particular person, how much ever close to you, to keep clinging to your cause 24x7x365. 
And this exactly is the moment, the time, the phase; where the only person with you, is only you. 
This is when one needs to counsel and strengthened oneself gradually and steadily.

Such a time actually helped me to undergo a small phase of “Self introspection”.
Ah! There I believe, I found the lasting solution for most of the crises. 

I learnt that out of any mess, one needed to see bigger purpose behind the same, leading to bigger picture. 

The only way one could smile back and regain one's focus, was by pushing away & moving away from all those links, connections & sources, which lead to negativity in the mind. And instead, try getting connected to all the sources which shall help and infuse newer, fresh & positive thoughts. 

Sounds obvious & so simple, isn't it ??
But it’s so tricky that you are bound to bounce back towards negativity unless you are extremely aware and alert. 

During such crisis, and with in-secured mindset, every accessible news & information, whether through newspapers or through any other electronic medium, generates more of negative distressing thoughts. 
(As most of us would agree, now-a-days major percentage of news what we get to hear or have our hands on, is distressing for the health of our minds).

So what I tried was, to keep connected to, stick to, the most real, original & the natural phenomena around me.
It can be as simple as - to read good, to talk good, to listen good, to see good, to eat good and ultimately start generating good positive vibes & thoughts. 

No doubt, such an effort was well supported by family and friends. 
I deeply appreciate & respect, the quality time they spent with me.

And I learned one valuable lesson, which I still happen to instantly put into effect during any unpleasant times if I come across in my day to day life. 
And that is “ACCEPTANCE”. 

What I first do, is to acknowledge and accept the problem as it is. This opens up my mind for further contemplation and it becomes easier to find ways towards solutions.

What I just mentioned as my experiences and learning, may not hold good for every one, every time.
But friends, trust me. 

Just by being a little more aware, accepting the crisis/problems the way it is, and trying to see the bigger purpose and picture behind it, can create wonders in our approach towards dealing with the situation and makes it little more convenient and easier to face it.

So, my fall back option under any crisis, would surely be the various sources of wisdom learning and applying my experiences to guide me, help me introspect and eventually clear my mind for other positive contemplation. 
This of course needs to be ably and compassionately supported by the near and dear ones, who understand your particular state of body and mind during such times.

By - Sanjay Jogani
Mumbai. India.
Revised, updated 25thMarch-2018
Visit - sanjay-jogani.blogspot.com

Disclaimer
Mention about any person, place, event, picture, image or logo; is just for reference purpose to enhance the essence of writing for better presentation. It's not intended to trespass the rights of the original owners.

My Home...

My Home

Just a thought of these two words or just a mere utterance, brings such a wonderful feeling in one’s heart. A feeling of ownership, feel of being connected to something which is so safe, so sweet & so much a part of our own physical existence.

Every corner of my home has a story.

It’s alive !!

It’s beyond & above the mere forging of Cement & the bricks.

In such a place when one is surrounded by happy, smiling faces of the people, the family; it pours life into every small space between these walls.

The first light of the day is experienced from on the bed, in “the Bed-room”, which is tranquil, cozy and have everything which gives the body and the mind much needed rest for the night. The soft morning light through the window curtains along with early chirping of the birds from over the branches of the tree just touching window, gives me enough energy and positivity to step out of the bed.

And the life starts.

Stepping into the living room and the sight of neatly folded, still untouched and unread newspaper with its usual misty feel and the sweet fragrance is enough to pull me towards it. This space of the home wakes me up for the real world about to begin. The soft, slow morning breeze swaying the leaves of the plant pots on my window, and the early morning playing of old Hindi melodies on my favourite radio channel is enough to add much needed flavour to my reading and enliven “My Living room”.

A little while later, the noise of the steel vessels from the kitchen, transferring of some freshly cooked delicacies on the dining table, calls me to get up and settle on my space for the first meal of the day, my breakfast, on “The Dining Table”. And gradually all d other members of the family, after getting through with their morning chores, settles down on their regular places. Me, my wife, my parents, my daughter & my son, getting into a little chit-chat over the breakfast, quickly going through each other’s plans & priorities for the day, exchanging pleasantries, some smiles, some grins and thus bringing this 8x8 space into life for few minutes. So this space is very special to me.

The best time of the day for me is the time of the early evening. I prefer to be back home at around twilight, getting into “The Kids Room”, and occupy the space on the swing with a cup of hot steaming tea, overlooking the scene outside my window. These 30 minutes or so, sums up my entire day, my thoughts and paves way to enhanced positive outlook on everything which I am doing and I must do. This time and space is “my time’, generally not interfered with any other intrusion. I have my most interesting thoughts being generated on this swing. Most of my plans are framed, flowcharted and being put into virtual action here in this room, in this space, “On the Swing in my Kids room”.

The last meal of the day, sees us all back on “The Dining Table”, meeting each other again after a gap of 10 to 11 hours. This space, which no doubt, in recent highly demanding and technically highly absorbing world, is the only common physical binding space, which keeps us all tied up firmly with each other and with the roots. This relieves the stress and physical & mental exhaustion of the day, if any. In the current times, dining together, I feel is one of the best and the healthiest act or an option which shall carry an Indian legacy, culture and tradition of living together for the times to come. The only place where the family members of 3 or 4 generations could exchange, share, listen and understand what’s really is very precious. So this space has immense importance for me as a person, as a family member.

An hour or so with the kids, post dinner, in their room has become a usual regular phenomena. This is especially as me and my wife are not pro-TV types and in fact love to spend time chatting or going for a drive in the late evenings. This space of my home, the Kid’s room, is where the innocence of my family breathes. The future of my family is getting prepared here in this space. An hour or so with them, almost every alternate day, results in sharing of their personal matters, queries and confusions which are discussed and solution is arrived at. In this space the aspirations and ambitions are at its peak. The emotions are extremes. I love this space and time for myself, as I come face to face with many surprises, creative discussions and debating, shouts, cries and hearty laughs, and these all is necessary and a must pass through, as it belongs to the them whose generation is going to steer and rule the world soon.

The night time bed calls me at its time and reading is more of a must-to-do routine, a habit for at least 30 minutes before I call it a day myself.

Again the cool breeze of the silence outside, an instrumental playing on my DVD player in the back ground, and a few very inspiring & eye opener articles in my read, allows me to be finally home, at complete rest; before it wakes me up with the smile next morning.

By - Sanjay Jogani; 

2^nd October’2016

                                                                                                                                                               

Trust

Trust

The word of just 5 letters, but having immense potential to im-mobilize the entire human activities.

Don’t we keep using this word frequently in our day to day lives?

Without actually realizing the exact importance of this term, in depth, and in all honesty of execution, we keep referring & re-iterating it again and again.

During our entire life-term, every breathing time-space moment, we depend purely on this inevitable support system created by us from this word “Trust”.

This word possesses an unseen energy. Every time the word “Trust” is used & uttered, the potential latent energy converts itself into dynamic energy which can be seen in the resulting outcome of the action it was intended for.

Every living being has a common-ness, a common root. The original texture from where it is connected to its origin is exactly the same. Eternally pure, original and complete.

Through the passage and transition through different forms of lives, every living being by their thoughts and actions, kept on accumulating and creating different layers on their this original self and thus kept on moving away from each other in terms of resultant differentiation of proportion of such accumulation by each of them.
But somehow, somewhere all still carry the same original root, where if returned, or in other words, where if reached, shall again re-identify all as one, eternally pure and original.

I felt, this mention and understanding of this original self, was very important to be considered to begin with, as the very essence of the subject (TRUST) is critically and explicitly connected to this basic understanding.

Because of this common thread, we always, many a times, feel an instant bond.

A connection.

And this may can be under various expressions and forms of likes, dislikes, love, hate etc. controlled and executed at different densities and intensities.

Why is this instant connection?

We may well can say, that it’s nothing but the common link of “one-ness”, which we just talked about.

Since ages beyond the traceable times, the nature has maintained it’s integral deliverance in such a pronounced unalterable consistent manner that we, the human beings, take vows on it’s timely presence & execution.
It is “The Trust” we put on something, which is neither created by nor can be controlled by us. But even then, WE TRUST. That’s what we have ever since seen, learnt and experienced.

To focus strongly on human behaviours only, on the matters of trust, is my main objective and purpose for this sharing.

It’s us, as humans, have diluted the very essence of this attribute by using it mostly to serve our selfish interests and motives.
In the process we forget and never realize that “Trust” is the basic element which is woven within the fabric.
It’s already there.
It’s already present.
Neither there should be an effort to earn it nor to be asked for and thrust upon to enhance responsibility.

Without being an able and rightful owner or possessor the required ingredient within our own self, we keep putting on & asking for trust from each and every person we come across in our lives so that he/she behaves and acts in the manner we like. The way we want.
And thus, any displacement in our thus created beliefs and expectation system, is taken as “betrayal”.

• Before a life takes birth, we put trust on the doctor and his ability to bring the new born safe and healthy in this world.
• In the next following years we put trust again in doctors and his expertise to keep providing healthy solution for our children.
• Then comes the teachers who would provide much needed nourishment in the form of education, gets our trust.
• We put trust on the group of friends eventually our child gathers during the passage of his passing through these years.
• We, by default, come across so many strangers in people and various such never before known agencies that our trust keeps getting spread on every possible decision of ours, eventually hoping to get our work done, successfully, the way we would want.

We keep getting into different kind of relationships may it be personal, social, commercial or spiritual. Our constant need to feed and satisfy ourselves with material accomplishments allows us to exercise putting of trust so simply, conveniently and easily, on everything. On everybody.

Did we ever realize how & why this practice of putting on trust on anything and everything comes so easily, simply and conveniently to us?

The problem doesn’t arise by putting in trust on something or someone. But it raises it’s head when something doesn’t work out or there is a deviation contrary to your acceptance, because of the same.

We know “Childhood” as the nearest to the purest form of human existence. During this phase, putting in trust and believing in everything comes so naturally to the child. This is because it’s woven within his own self. But the eventual growing up and tendencies of executing “trust” on every drop of word, may eventually lead to the experiences of disappointments within him. We have learnt the same by our peers and we make our children learn the same in return.

So it’s us who keep proving ourselves wrong by moving away from the very authentic existence of our pure original self which has “trust” as strong root for the existence of all living beings.

We are made to learn about this and eventually we kept on using it to serve our own self interests. This not only did give rise to disappointments but also gave birth to many other evils within one’s own self such as anger, jealousy, doubt, revenge etc. And ultimately paved way for creation of so many other wrong belief systems within the systems, only to lose our original identity, as being one.

So by putting in trust to gain material benefits and serve similar purposes in the world we reside in, we are just trying to make it convenient and justify the outcomes at every levels. Because, mostly it’s dependent on the third party, it ultimately creates chaos in the world system we exist.

I believe and understand “trust” as something which is carried, by default, within our original existence. It’s a strong root, and a very important platform, which gets matured & intensified as “faith” in the path to our final destination, the only destination, wherein we do not need to gather or in other words are not asked to, supposed to or required to gather more birth experiences.

Under such extremely pure belief conditions and by experiencing a strong transition from “trust” to “faith” we try to re-gain our original identity.
And as because this time it’s only us, our own original selves to be excelled upon and improved upon, there is no sense of disappointments and betrayal. On the contrary, there is improved efforts every time, on every fall, to attain our final goal.

By - Sanjay Jogani
Mumbai. India.
sanjay-jogani.blogspot.com

Disclaimer
Mention about any person, place, event, picture, image or logo; is just for reference purpose to enhance the essence of writing for better presentation. It's not intended to trespass the rights of the original owners.

Europe Diary

Europe Diary

I had learned as a manner of law statement that “you attract, what you strongly desire for”.

Travel to the countries of Europe was always a childhood dream I carried.

Nowadays, to travel to any parts of the world is not something which is a big task or very difficult or not possible. Every now and then, people do take such international holiday breaks and the frequency of such vacationing has increased in last a few years.

When you move away from your country & step into some place, on some soil, which has a complete different history, a different story to tell; which is entirely different from what we have always known about of it, heard & perceived about it, then we somehow feel the different kind of connection. Although it may be your first time to travel through these places, but there is an instant chemistry which weave us into the history of their times.

I always wanted to roam around & visit Europe, not as a tourist, but as an intrinsic part as their own natural habitat. Having heard & read so many things about this continent over the last couple of decades that the urge in me to travel through the heart of these countries was immense.

And as mentioned above, the strong urge in me could attract the time, grab the moment, which placed this opportunity in front of me.
And finally a trip of 18 days was planned, along with all my cousins, making it a group of 21, to begin the journey, which today remains and have been permanently stored as one of the most exciting experiences amongst my various travels so far.

The idea to take this vacation was born somewhere around December last (2015), over a coffee with all the cousins. And it being Rishil’s (my son's) 10^th boards final year, planning of an overseas vacation was always the agenda on my mind.
Getting all on board was never going to be easy and honestly we didn’t even seriously considered that the plan with all on board will materialize. After a couple of such meetings in February’2016, it was decided to at least book flight tickets so that it forges the initiation of idea into first level execution.

Tickets were bought. To start with just 12 of us. Mumbai-Paris-Rome-Mumbai.

WOW! The first hard copy of my dream was in my hands.

After the tickets were issued, at least it was clear that plan is on. And the next 90 days were going to be all possible sort of planning, which included deciding on various destinations to be covered, accommodation, food, type of clothing to suit weather at different destinations, mode of internal travel, different activities, etc.

Parag, my cousin, was not available for this trip. And so we were waiting for other cousins, Utkarsh’s and Priyesh’s family to join the bandwagon as they continued to be in dilemma whether to join or not and eventually to everybody’s excitement they became the part of the trip soon.
12 became 20 now.
Zeenal, my daughter, was supposed to have her B.A. 2nd year exams and also was going through few job interviews which took a bit long time for her to decide and join us on board. So, now it was 21. :-)

So it was time now to locate an experienced travel coordinator who would guide us about how we should be optimally utilizing our time & money, so that we could cover what necessarily needs to be covered to result into an ever lasting impact of wonderful experiences to our hearts content.

Came across as suggestion from Amit, Mr Samir Savani of “Savani Travel Hub” at VileParle (E).

Meeting with him was almost an instant click as he seemed totally different compare to that of standard experiences what every other reputed tour and travel operator offers.
A different approach to holidaying which takes into account every minute aspect of our individual interest considering various age categories in our group and also value for money approach on every aspect of the trip planning.

And after at least 5 to 6 meetings with Samir, we zeroed in on the destinations as Paris (France), Black Forest (Germany), and Barcelona (Spain) to Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Vatican & Rome in Italy.

Impressive!
Looked so good on paper. Sounded so sweet in the ears. Happy times ahead.

And soon we were on with our money invested in booking of the apartments, flight tickets, cars, coaches and various group activities and sightseeing.
We took our own sweet time to decide on what to see and visit at each of the places, which historic places and monuments to cover & what needed to be prebooked to have an advantage for advance group booking.

A couple of lovely concepts which were instilled in our minds by Samir of Savani Travel Hub, that, when you visit any city in Europe, try and roam around as such, that you become a local part of that city for those few days. Which implied, travel with minimum baggage, to have as many possible guided walking tours, to move around in self driven cars, use maps and GPS, to try and use maximum modes of local transport available, either buses or trains or metros. Also to try and hunt for food that suits your requirements.
All this were aimed to allow us to come in constant communication with the local residents eventually helping us to make entire experience full of adventure and excitement.

We of course readily accepted & incorporated the new ideas and concept this holiday was being shaped up with, and tried our best to accommodate our interests in line with it.
But as being Gujarati Jains, we all know and quite well understand that to reduce on the baggage part and carrying requisite raw materials for home cooked food was never going to be compromised with.

And finally we landed up travelling with heavy loads, which covered up for our lost days in the Gym back home. (lolz)

2 families (Utkarsh’s & Priyesh’s) left on 15^th May’2016 to visit Switzerland, later to join us on 19^th at Paris.
We 4 families (Mine, Rina di’s, Amit’s & Nilesh’s) left on 19^th May, early morning, to fly from Mumbai to Paris via Abu Dhabi.

Moving little back to the planning stage, I decided 19^th May to land in Paris, as its being my wife Rupa’s birthday and I wanted it to be something special, a moment to be remembered and cherished for life.
And spending a couple of hours on 19^th midnight, below Eiffel tower on the banks of Seine River, was something which actually happened and now is a sweet memory permanently imprinted in our hearts.

3 nights in Paris was a lovely experience to start the trip.
We covered 2 guided walking tours, Latin tours, Left bank and right bank, Eiffel tower, Seine river cruise, Arc d Triumph, A Garden & the Art Museum.

As it’s said, and now could witness, that every building, every place in Europe is a golden part of strong history and have an immense heritage value.
We passed by the roads, the streets, the shops, the road side food & drink joints, admiringly looking at the people either on their way to work, or just lost deeply into their world of art either through painting or singing or dancing or playing music.

One just can’t  afford to ignore the world at play, all around us.
Away from home country & far from all those day to day stressful living hours, race against time, full of deadlines, targets and commitments, actually helped to activate happy hormones in our minds which made everything around us, to look and feel more beautiful than what it must be in real.

The sheer display of freedom of heart and mind, to do what you really want to do, to showcase what you know as best, was something which surely teaches a lesson or two to anybody.

Can’t stop comparing how’s and why’s of living in our country vis-à-vis what was seen and being experienced here.
A true and harsh reality is that, we are losing our “precious time” in this world with every ticking of the moment. And even though, we blindly keep spending whole of our time, money, energy; in fact an entire lifetime, in the pursuit to keep gathering, keep expanding more of our material reach for better times of tomorrows.
Alas!. These tomorrows are never guaranteed.
The ever healthy state of the body and the mind is not guaranteed.
In the hopes to improve our living of tomorrow, we waste our entire Yesterdays and todays, only to regret later about what rightly needed to be done.
The soul within, is never searched. Never ever an effort is being put to introspect what the child (innocent desire) in us wants or always wanted.

And today, away from home, when I see people in action, full of smiles and showcasing their artistic talents to the mass, may it be for the purpose to earn their living too, touched me deeply.
A sense of guilt, of sheer disappointment & pity, surfaced for my own self, forcing me to introspect, where am I heading toward?
For whom?
To achieve what?

Walking tours, through the heart of the city gave us the chance to get to know so much deeply about everything.
The passion with which the stories were relayed to us, the energy with which we all kept being drawn and stepped up with the guide, the innumerable questions which kept springing in our minds; were replied to and the urge fulfilled in such a straight forward and beautiful manner that it came as a strong realization, that aren't we, since long, missing this energy and urge to be inquisitive, curious, efforts to seek answers, to raise valid questions, so as to satisfy our appetite to know more, which is important and right.
Here nothing seemed silly. You ask anything what comes to your mind, how a child asks his/her first questions and in return you are constantly being satisfied and you land up feeling more learned, more updated, more worthy.

History and architecture always fascinated me.
I can keep looking at any piece of art how much ever mysterious, attractive, clumsy, weird or interesting it may seem to be.
Any such piece of art takes me deep into the mind of its creator.
His times, His circumstances, His thought process.
The problems & resistances faced in his times. The emotions which surfaced with every new idea & on its execution & then the final Eureka moments.
Somehow it always pulled me towards the creation.

So every sight for me came as a blessing. Thanks to the recent high-tech world that allowed me to keep capturing every moment by freezing into mobile camera shutters.
There was nothing which I would have liked to miss capturing, but then how much practical is it to gather all ?
So realiszed, that few things better be forged as a permanent imprint within the heart and the mind rather than making it a part of my phone GB.
And that prompted me to pause, stop and breathe in everything I could put my hands on.

The trip followed with a wonderful stay at Black Forest (Germany) for 6 days, then Barcelona (Spain) for 3 days and final 5 days in Italy covering Venice, Leaning tower of Pisa at Florence, Tuscany, Vatican City and ended up at Rome.

Black Forest stay gave our trip a complete new dimension of exploring Germany.

Somewhere in between Frankfurt and Munich, we stayed in Black Forest at a country side village, Dobel.

What a stay it was, just WOW!

These 6 days were planned to experience different kind of activities such as Zip line, Rope ways, Europa Park, Baden Baden, Mercedes Factory, Mercure mountain top, Mercedes museum, Metzingen, big brand shopping outlets.
And interesting part of these 6 days was, that we travelled in self driven SUVs, covering an average of 200kms a day, an experience which would be the most pleasant part of the trip.

Staying at a country side apartment was a huge plus as we didn’t have to run to catch trains and metros to keep up with the crowd and pace of the city life.
We stayed & enjoyed every hour as we wanted to.
As more of the activities were being planned in these 6 days involving a good amount of travelling, we had decided on, to call for a cook from Belgium, who served us hot Indian food, all the 3 meals for these 6 days.
This turned out to be a very wise decision as after each day's travel one need not had to be worried about hunting for food., especially with small kids by our side. We were welcomed with delicious Indian meals daily, which kept the energy levels high to meet the activities agenda for the next day.

Did some daring Zipline, hiking and trekking through the forest and the hills, and got immersed in scenic natural beauty all around for entire stay here.

Flew to Barcelona from Munich on 28^th Morning, for extremely satisfying next 3 days, which made us all fall in love with the city.
Landing at Barcelona came with a happy news of Rishil securing 91.2% in his boards exams. Congratulations! wishes! celebrations!
This went on for a while and re-infused more positive energy.

Barcelona, also had 2 walking tours which covered beautiful churches, Montjuic fountain and extra ordinary architecture, the Gaudi experience. 
What a city! You see people passionate about everything they do, whether they play or see Football, or they cycle their way through roads, or they do acrobatics on the streets.

We of course lost track of our days and dates, but every day here seemed like a weekend in celebration.

How lovely it would be, if we do not have those "Monday blues" and can celebrate and welcome it in similar fashion as how Fridays and Saturdays bring smiles on our lips &light up our faces.

“Las Ramblas”, a promenade, a street, in Barcelona; to spend hours and hours.
If you like to just sit around there on road side benches and chairs or get up and enter into some big brand shopping or just savour different flavours of ice creams or just stand by and get yourself clicked with live human statues in disguise or just spend few moments with an artist, the painter who is passionately on his job, creating a piece of exclusive art every few minutes.
What you see around is just happy and happier faces, as if telling us that everything here is gonna stay like this forever and ever.
No worries can be seen on any faces, may it about their todays or their tomorrows. Just focussed in their "NOW".
May be what marks them different is their “attitude” towards everything in life.

Visit to the Barcelona Football stadium made me realized how important it’s considered to have an excellence in this sport.
The Players of yesteryears and current times are prayed as Gods.
They bring name, fame and pride to the country on their every outings.
They put in blood and sweat on what they are best at and equally supported by their people and the government to maintain the position at the top.
Every 90 minutes of encounter is a festival and every win is a celebration.

I don’t mean say that we don’t have similar passion about sports in our country.
But what sometimes seem to be missing is the constant evolution of not only the players involved but also an overall strong change of perception about the game, the sport and the spirit. (#ingeneral).

Barcelona followed with entry into Venice.
A land of hundred plus islands. Life within and around water.
Words may fall short to relay my experience of those few hours.
The Venice outing in combination with Murano Glass factory was a wonderful experience.
Again a case of extra ordinary talent at display, of making glass decorative pieces in minutes without the help of any high-tech machines or and scientific measuring instruments.
Pure imagination and extreme artistic talent at work.
Gone are the days where such talents were showcased, were put into limelight and were given their share of awards and appreciation.
The technology has overpowered real natural instincts within each of us.
But we all know, there is nothing more powerful than what can be created and cultivated in the mind, which itself is a source of creation of such high technology world around us.
And if the power of the mind is tapped to its full or optimal potential, the light from it would be extremely strong.

One hour at the glass factory, made me think about what I myself possess as my inherent intrinsic strength which is not being nurtured and nourished in right proportions.
And I decide & promise myself, to start watering the ignored plant, once I am back on my soil.

In the following days we covered Vatican City, Leaning tower of Pisa, and Cinque terra.
Cinque terra, a model town; one of the five such village towns, which is immensely popular for its location, hiking, blue sea on one side and the rocky mountains touching the shore.
A few hours in Cinque terra gave us much needed breather with the scenic beauty all around.
Again a spot where we captured ourselves in multiple frames, not to miss any rising waves and wonderful landscapes.

Coming to Rome, the final destination, just for one day, as the flight to return was from Rome.
I remember we had just 24 hours in Rome, including night stay.
I was so very impressed by this city, that I instantly wanted to extend my stay for a couple of days more here.
The Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Vatican city..
I could feel that for me these 24 hours are too less to get fully soaked up in its history.
Every piece of history, thousands of years old, was preserved meticulously.
We can see parallel modern town also being created in line and around such preserved monuments and buildings.

Yes, ROME was not build in a day.
And When in ROME, do what ROMANS do.
So true!

One can’t escape the sheer charm of being here.
You can’t remain aloof and can no longer be a separate identity.
One doesn’t have any choice but to get merged in its beautiful way of life.

ROME remains in my list of second visit and of course would love to do justice to Spain as a country touching Barcelona once again, if the destiny permits.

Thus came an end to one of the most wonderful and exciting 18 days of my life.
One such similar trip of great experience was Switzerland in 2009, which had completely changed my perspective about holidaying. And I'm glad that the second such realisation and experience came through these European expedition.

Back to Mumbai on 5^th June’2016; Sunday and today it’s almost closing 30 days and taste still remains.

Thanks to all my cousins for making it a wonderful outing which shall remain a sweet memory for all of us and thanks to Samir and his Team for guiding us towards a complete new experience and constantly keeping in touch, everyday, so that we do not miss out on any thing.

Major takeway from this trip-

Have learnt to accept & celebrate life and it’s every gifted moments, as it comes.

Every moment, is a celebration of life as long as we have family & friends who are with you on your every rise and every fall.

Since having back from the trip, celebrated dad’s surprise birthday bash on 11^th June, coinciding with celebration of Zeenal’s first day at first job of her life (6^th June), and Rishil’s academic achievement of 10^th boards.

Followed it with one more celebration for Rishil securing admission in first merit list in the first college of his choice, HR.

So as many moments we are ready to celebrate, life has a reason to keep offering more.
If you are ready to smile, life will give enough and more and more reasons to smile.

So, Keep smiling and keep spreading happiness! Cheers! Happy Living!

                                                    Sanjay Jogani; 
                                                    3^rd July’2016 
                                                    #Europediary