I believe that Life shows its reflection in all walks of life...... a crumpled flower shows how life exists in giving fragrance to the hand that crushes it..... babies show how simple; life can be in the absence of knowledge... and the equity market shows how things even out in the long run...
It is common knowledge in the equity industry that the only person who wins in a continuous bout of trading, is the broker.... not the trader..... so common sense propagates the idea of staying invested for a longer period of time.... historically, the equity market has showed a return of 15-20%, even on investments which were forgotten about for 5 years or so!!...... The same holds true for life too....
Life is an investment and we stay invested by using the currency of work...... so my advice is, stay invested and reap returns...... The saying "good things come to those who wait" is all but misleading..... good things come to those who work and dont wait for results..... When Bhagvad Gita says "karmanye waadi karasye, maa phaleshu kadachana" (do your deed and dont expect any returns), it is not actually proliferating the virtue of philanthropy..... what it actually means to say is that "do your work and but dont run after your returns..... money follows those who dont follow it".....
The day we start looking at monetary benefits as a side effect of hard work and not its means and ends...... that day, we will prosper... in the truest meaning of that term....
Parallel Tracks
Travelling in Indian railways is always an enlightening experience; especially for those endowed with the ability to discern the extraordinary from the ordinary. The other day I travelled a distance of 400 km on Indian railways and learnt things which I would never have learnt (nor would I have been interested in learning). Here are some excerpts.
It is said that time is the biggest leveller of them all. A wonderful dialogue from an even more wonderful movie goes something like "After the game is over, both the king and the pawn go back into the same box". But come to think of it, so is railways. You can hardly select the religion, caste or even, gender of the passenger sitting next to you. But I really feel that the gender option should be customizable (what say Mr. L.P. Yadav?). On a given day, at a given time, all the people going to the same destination are equals... with equal right to claim seat, eat, breathe, drink and enjoy the journey.
It is a well known fact that much of modern intellectuality has brewed in the coffee pots of various coffee house. Friends, philosophers and comrades discussed everything under the sun. Railways is the new age coffee house. Here, the future of local state governments are discussed and also whether saas-bahu serials must continue or not (and contrary to popular misconception, it is never a one sided debate!)... As long as the person next to you, doesn't have any personal enmity with you, you might get away with any topic!
I for example learnt the interesting aspect of an otherwise staid world of textile marketing, the Haj pilgrimage, the contract system and how the loopholes in them are taken advantage of. I hereby propose to include a frequent long distance train journey in all MBA curriculum. And I suppose everyone on this side of Vastrapur, Ahmedabad will agree with me....
It is said that time is the biggest leveller of them all. A wonderful dialogue from an even more wonderful movie goes something like "After the game is over, both the king and the pawn go back into the same box". But come to think of it, so is railways. You can hardly select the religion, caste or even, gender of the passenger sitting next to you. But I really feel that the gender option should be customizable (what say Mr. L.P. Yadav?). On a given day, at a given time, all the people going to the same destination are equals... with equal right to claim seat, eat, breathe, drink and enjoy the journey.
It is a well known fact that much of modern intellectuality has brewed in the coffee pots of various coffee house. Friends, philosophers and comrades discussed everything under the sun. Railways is the new age coffee house. Here, the future of local state governments are discussed and also whether saas-bahu serials must continue or not (and contrary to popular misconception, it is never a one sided debate!)... As long as the person next to you, doesn't have any personal enmity with you, you might get away with any topic!
I for example learnt the interesting aspect of an otherwise staid world of textile marketing, the Haj pilgrimage, the contract system and how the loopholes in them are taken advantage of. I hereby propose to include a frequent long distance train journey in all MBA curriculum. And I suppose everyone on this side of Vastrapur, Ahmedabad will agree with me....
V...
Virtues tend to leave a bitter aftertaste and vices are, by default, addictive. That is the sad fact of life. Truth is bitter, truth is blunt, truth has the potential to make enemies out of friends. Whereas, a little bit of false flattery has a good chance of getting u that elusive promotion. Bitter gourd, in spite of all the goodness that it is purported to give, is still..... well...... Bitter. Sugar is by default; sweet. If all things good, taste bad and if all things bad, taste good; then it makes one wonder..... Why did my parents, siblings, peers, teachers, uncles and aunties and distant cousins, go to such extents to teach me what is good and what is bad? and why was I taught to do the good and shun from evil?..... Why did they install version 1.1 of Morality software when they knew about its obsolescence and gradual substitution by version 1.2?
A child comes into this earth like a clean slate.... in the beginning of life, things are just told... never explained.... in the words of law, everything is based on rules and not articles.... And then, we start to question.... and all hell breaks loose... We learn through a tedious process of unlearning.... makes one wonder..... why go through all this fracas? why not say the truth from the very beginning?
The answer according to me lies in simple statement which has always stuck to me "we all live in a constant hope"...... a father teaching his child not to lie knows that he, himself, is lying.... but he lives in a constant hope.... he is hoping against hope that the world will miraculously change for his kid and what he is being taught now, will help him in future..... All good things are taught to us in a hope that its obsolescence will be reversed.... so the next time, someone tries to show you what is good and what is bad.... take it with a pinch of salt.... but take it, nonetheless.... who are we to underestimate the potency of hope?
A child comes into this earth like a clean slate.... in the beginning of life, things are just told... never explained.... in the words of law, everything is based on rules and not articles.... And then, we start to question.... and all hell breaks loose... We learn through a tedious process of unlearning.... makes one wonder..... why go through all this fracas? why not say the truth from the very beginning?
The answer according to me lies in simple statement which has always stuck to me "we all live in a constant hope"...... a father teaching his child not to lie knows that he, himself, is lying.... but he lives in a constant hope.... he is hoping against hope that the world will miraculously change for his kid and what he is being taught now, will help him in future..... All good things are taught to us in a hope that its obsolescence will be reversed.... so the next time, someone tries to show you what is good and what is bad.... take it with a pinch of salt.... but take it, nonetheless.... who are we to underestimate the potency of hope?
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