COVID-19 - It' something you have to fear

Dear Friends,

Coronavirus - COVID-19

It's something you have to fear. Please take responsibility. Not for you, but for your loved ones. Bcoz you don't get affected (die) but people around you can. 

Yes you need to buy many things for the home, yes you need to go home, yes you need to meet your friends, but it's not the right time. Stay where ever you are, stay in, stay safe!

Here are a few data which you need to read first.

WHO has been updating info about Corona on their website. You can access it here - WHO
Here are some snaps of information.

Countries affected - WHO 

Current Stats around the world

So, is this the end of the world? No, it's not like that the world is going to end. But if you are not following what the government is saying you then that will happen – The world will end!

Well, this is not about who is ruling and what they're saying but whatever they're saying it's for the health of every individual. Because the disease you're concerned with is not something that can be stopped with a pill. It’s spreading like a forest fire right now and the only way to stop is to break the chain.  

As this day, if you are reading this, then, definitely you should have learned about what is the chain and how to break it. The only option to break the chain is to stay away from all the people. Stay inside home.

Personally, I state a few precautions to follow which is not said to general people who are going out now

1. So, if you are going out to buy groceries or important things and you are returning, stop at your door. Don't touch anything in your home. Directly go and have a bath. It is also better to wash all your clothes.
2. Don't go for panic shopping to buy things and stock it up for weeks. If you have food for the next seven days that's enough. You can get through this.
3. Always avoid the crowd. If you are going out anywhere to buy something and found a large crowd on the stores just step back and give distance between each. if there is no one to guide other people please take the lead and guide them to practice distancing.
4. Don't spend too much on a mask. Just have a kerchief to cover your face. That is to protect others from you. And a kerchief can do the same.
5. Yes, you can also follow our traditional practice of spraying turmeric water in front of your house as that will act as an antiseptic. 
6. Wash hands frequently. You don't have sanitizers. That's fine. Use salt water and washing soap to wash your hands. That will do the required.
7. And please watch news frequently. At least 2 times a day. That will help you!

 

According to experts, we are at the early stage as of now and if you're not controlling it right now then it will become very difficult to control this disease. I think you have never witnessed this kind of curfew anytime in your life in your nation. So if they're stressing out this much then think of how tough the situation is.

Above all - Please educate the people around you! That's very important right now.

Here are a few links that help you to learn updates about the disease.
 - WHO Whatsapp Bot - Link
 - India Whatsapp Bot - Link 
 - WHO Statistics - Link

From Pongal to Sankranti

Lured by the south Indian practices and with a keen sense of celebrating the festivals, I was brought up. Every year Pongal and Diwali are the most sought festivals which I keep an eye on. These are the festivals where we all get a long pause from work and spend time with family happily. I never realized the essence of love, the importance of family and being with them, until I joined my colleagues in a different city. Being away from home taught me many things. The values, family's importance, relationship, love and what life is all about. There is always a debate about whether money is an important thing in this world or not. Even I debate with myself many times about that. But no one never thought about debating whether family and their love is important or not! why because, we all know, damn that's a very important one.

So every year I was used to be with my family during this festival season. And I always reminded myself, wherever I go, I should be present at home for these festivals. But this year, the situation was not like that. As different travel needs emerged up, I was forced to cancel my festival trip to my home. This is the first year in my life, I am away from my home on the festival season. That gave me shivers over my spline whether this will become like this forever. Even I didn't know the next day is Pongal. My colleagues mentioned tomorrow is a holiday. Then only I remembered that.

This Pongal started as usual as another normal Sunday spent in the room. But here in Pune, the people were celebrating Sankranthi here. So I planned to witness the Sankranthi celebrations. I learned that kite flying, going to the temple and sharing sweets is the tradition here. As I observed, only women went in groups to temples. All the kids were enjoying kite flying. So, I thought I can also indulge in the Sankranti celebration. I flew kite with kids, well, almost after 8 years I did this. That gave me nostalgia for past memories. I thought the day will end as it is and I am satisfied over the kite flying. Then at night, to my surprise, my neighbour flat people gave sweets and rasam (I don't know what that is) but I enjoyed that. Well, this season, finally the day ended dropping down my regrets of not being at home. 

The Life of Emptiness

Do you know atoms? The smallest particles that constitute an object? Technically, about 99.99% of a helium atom is empty. This means it has that much-unoccupied space within them, well waste space. It's almost similar to all atoms. So, what if there is no waste space? simply saying, you are planning to hang a decor at home roof. you just need a meter of rope. But if you have a very long one what you do? You will just cut the required length. right? So what if we can do the same to our atoms, the basic building matter? what if we removed the unwanted space? Do we shrink? I don't know science. But with common sense, once space is removed, it becomes small and so we may shrink. If that happened then we all humans can live in 1/100th of place, we live right now. (Just an imagination)

Well, Is it possible now? No, I believe it's never. As same like that our life is made up of emptiness. You cannot live a life without complaining about even a small thing. Definitely once or many you end up living the worst moment at least once. But you want to worry about that? No. Never worry about the worst moments in life. They seem to cause emptiness in your life. The thought of what to do next, thoughts of self complaining, bad habits, depression, and self-destructive thoughts are like voids which come in everyone's life as like the empty space. But remember there are still protons, neutrons, and electrons inside the atom. This constitutes our life. You just need to learn to balance the life equations.

I won't say life is not of emptiness. But I say it must be with emptiness. If not so, then how will you learn to react, respond and live? So welcome the emptiness wholeheartedly and balance your life with happiness.

Have a good day!

In the process of Knowing Myself!!

With plenty of thoughts, I am penning down a few after a very long time. With constant procrastination, I missed my writing habit. My blogs died, My profiles became soulless, and I became a shit. I am always running with annoying thought of "I don't have time" and worrying about next... But it's time to overcome that.

Being a Homosapien who has only one ambition from my childhood, I failed. After transformation of different phases of life from child to kid to a boy to teen and towards man, still, I am pondering on how to achieve my ambition. Many goals came in between. Many things have been aimed, and few succeeded. Still, I haven't got my path towards my ambition. Looking back all these 23 years, the only thing I succeeded in is being alive. But I believe in connecting dots.

With constant thoughts about my ambition, one beautiful day, I planned to stop thinking about it. When you stop thinking about one thing, then definitely you will start thinking about another, right? In my case, I was already entangled in consistent thoughts about morning song and radio news, here and there with daydreams. But that's the time I clearly understood I am heading nowhere.

And there came a location change, which helped me to clear some clutter in my mind.
I started thinking of myself. I started to analyze what I am doing in my 24-hour span, which I am loosing on a daily basis. First two days, I was rigorous on noting down things I am doing. Then it started diminishing, and I lost track. Then I started focussing on my diet since I am profound about developing my family pack.

In three months of the span, I clearly understood what I should focus on. This can be said for all adults who are in their early 20's.

1. Learn about Yourself. Your strength and weakness. What you love, what you hate, and what you don't give a shit. And write it in your diary!
2. Learn financial planning. Learn to read statements and how money works.
3. Do something at least monthly once, which makes you happy inside.
4. Forget all and focus only on yourself till you turn 25. Whoever may be, let's think about them after 25.
5. Gain failures and make more mistakes. As dark is just an absence of light, success is just abate of failure.
6. Look through and Look forward!

Now I believe the first part of success is knowing about themselves first. What do you think?

On Search of Happiness

Almost every one of us are idiots, who search for happiness (sorry, but its true). You see, on our entire life, the only goal everyone wants is "To be Happy". But everyone fails to be happy in many situations or maybe even at their whole life. Have you ever thought and analyzed this happiness and depression pattern?

Happiness is completely based on your Thoughts. The first enemy to destroy your happiness is your "Thoughts on requirements".Yes! There is a difference between need and requirement. Many people around the world still strive to fulfill their needs while many long to fulfill their requirements. Deep down you just need to realize and understand that your requirements are not needs which have to be fulfilled. It's just a thing which may elevate you up for extra comfort.

Very few of us understand those things. There are various things contribute to your sadness even though when you are happy. Best one of them is Social media's. Do you know for what it is been created? Just to be in touch with people, to make new friends & to share information, career interests, ideas, and other forms of expression on virtual communities. But now this has become the place for obsession and addiction. Being truthful, you are very happy and you live a happy life. But longing for things and your greed intrude you easily and make you think that you don't have anything to be happy. And these thoughts not only make you sad but question your existence.

Always remember and say it to yourself - "I am happy". You are blessed with food and shelter. You have beautiful friends to surround you and take care for you. You being a blessed person, you are very happy and you can bring down the happiness to others. Let's cherish Happiness around you by carrying a smile!!

Cheers!!

P.S: You can also bring smiles to many children by helping them to learn by joining an NGO and volunteer for teaching the underprivileged kids. You can also help out the needed kids by becoming their scribes. (Mail me for more info & contact)

Deepavali - The Lost Charm

Diwali has lost its charm. Yes, it is. These days Diwali is not like those which is used to be when I was a kid (PS. Still I'm a kid). In my childhood, the vibes of Diwali will be there at least for a month. When the Diwali month/before strikes on the calendar, the first thing I will be thinking is of new dress and crackers purchase. Before 30 days the Diwali dress will be purchased and will be stored in the cupboard. Every time I open it, I will be thinking of the Diwali day and will be counting the days to wear it. And then comes the cracker purchase. There will be demand from me and negotiations from my parents. The supply curve changes according to time. But it will be interesting and very happy to see all your demands have met on the day of Deepavali. And the best part is the next day school after holidays where we all will be in our colour dress.. That makes the festival very interesting.

But these days I can't find the charm of that Deepavali. Nowadays what comes to my mind about Diwali is 2/3 days continuous leave and I can go to hometown to be happy. Still, I feel the hole happiness as before but everything in a very different way. But that excitement and charm can't be seen on these days kids. Just thinking about all now, I feel they have lost the way of lifestyle and the happiness it brings. They consider as another holiday but with few additional joy. They are not so eager about new dresses since they buy whenever they go shopping with their parent. They go shopping frequently, at least a month. Thus they lost the happiness of a new dress. And for crackers and other things, kids directly get everything they demand, without any negotiations. They lost that happiness too.

But we still have many kids around us who don't get any of these and they struggle to lead a life.

So what's the way to bring back the charm in everyone? There are many other ways these festivals can be celebrated and I was very glad about one of them. I've seen some people take their family to ashrams and homes to celebrate their day with them. Many people spend their holidays with kids who need attention and they teach them the values of life. Many volunteer on NGO's and they bring the change. And I think this can bring up the lost charm and happiness in every one of our lives. So from this year lets pledge to help few, those who are in need. Let's celebrate a green Diwali and let us modify our old tradition. Maybe this becomes the meaning of your life and who knows what changes you bring to many? Let this festival of lights bring in hopes for all and Light in many darkened lives. Happy Diwali!!

Footnote:

So where & how to help and volunteer?

As far my knowledge, Here is two NGO's where you can help and volunteer for the needs.

Deepam is one of the best organization which serves unprivileged children in various localities for their  education

Bhumi, another great NGO and they help many kids by various programs in India. They have a big volunteer base and help many.

You can join these NGO and can help many in need. The WhatsApp link to both NGO operating at Coimbatore is attached. Else drop me a message and I will get you a contact for your location to volunteer.

Once again Happy Diwali, the festial of lights.

Few Hundred Steps!

It continued to rain heavy & heavy and we started losing our hopes and adrift. It was an epoch of love and courage to travel and nature was slowly degrading it down on that day. All started on a delightful evening when I was thinking about the next day which is a holiday. A holiday between the work gives an immense pleasure and I was strolling on the balcony thinking of how could I spend it. The whole day turned up with a ring from my phone.

Friend: Dai where are you?
Me: Where nowhere else except my room?
Friend: Tomorrow?
Me: Holiday :)
Friend: We are going to Velliangiri. Come fast. Book an Ola and reach Ramanathapuram.

Fast Fast Fast!!
Me: With whom? When? ....
cling.., Cling..,

Phone Hanged up.

Called him again, Doi how many of us are going and when should I reach there?
There is an Ola micro near, book it from your room and reach soon here. Already a batch is gone! Cling.., ing.,

Okay fine, I can't get any more answer from him. Bragging some things I headed out booking an Ola. As usual, when we are in need, we don't get them fast. Ater 15 mins it reached me and I boarded. It was my first time to Velliangiri and I even don't know where it is. Just heard stories about the 7 hills and the Lord Shiva idol at the top. With no more information about the trip or the people who are joining me, I was heading. After 10 mins of waiting in Ramanathapuram, he came and we started towards Velliangiri. It was around 8 when we started. Trailing towards the destination, in few kilometers trees started to wave their hands and chill breeze hit our splines. My heart recited "It's gonna be a lifetime experience" and I was thrilled towards the travel to the top.

Hope you know about Velliangiri. If not read about it here. It's the par compared spiritual place next to Mount Kailash.

Okay, We 10 people, my 4 friends and 5 friends of friends gathered at the bottom of Velliangiri hills and was preparing for our travel. No one had ever thought that it could happen. We don't even have a clue. Everyone grabbed a bamboo stick which may help in climbing. With a great belief in myself, I rejected having a stick (maybe due to laziness to carry it throughout the journey).

Happily started with the blessings of Lord Vinayaga and Shiva at the bottom, we started climbing. One by one, Step by step we started moving. It's usually said that First mountain and 7th mountain are toughest while 5th is the easiest. I personally enjoyed the climbing. Decomposing leaves, aged trees, creaking branches, beetles squeaking, insect music, the soil smell and here and there small openings on the roof where moonlight reaches the ground, everything fascinated my travel towards high rises. When almost the first mountain is going to end, it happened.

The clouds started crying. It started slowly and it was a drizzle. And this is the point where the second thoughts on travel started arising in everyone's mind except me. I believe its (Rain) a blessing by God for us. Slowly we moved up and up and the clouds started pouring high and high. As soon as I reached the third mountain I was fully drenched and it started shivering. We all were separated and I was with my three friends. One wants to return back and we tried to move him up. But at last we failed and he returned down. Continued my journey from the 3rd mountain. Reached the 4th one and the rain was heavy and almost everyone returned who were climbing before us stating the path was very slippery.

Almost half past the 4th mountain, my hope disappeared and the questions of surveying started to hit. Of my four friends, only two continued with me and we started thinking more practical and we are questioning ourselves on every next step. Few hundred steps already crossed. Half past I am standing. But with no hope! The climate continued to stay as it is and I forced myself to return back. Everyone who came with us returned back. I fell down two to three times on return due to slippery path

It was one of the nicest experience in my life. Even though I am adrift still I am happy to visit that place on that day at that time. It was morning 6.15 when I returned. Almost spent 7 hours in the hills and reached an altitude of about 3500 ft. Lifetime experience!! Few Hundred Steps!!!