Does one need a role model?

If one should have a role model is the question for the ages. The answer differs from person to person. However, if you should have one is something that can be examined more easily than in general. What one can definitively say is this. If you are not satisfied how things are going, or if you cant tell why things are not going the way you intend to go, then you must be doing something wrong. In fact if you are doing everything right, that by itself maybe a wrong thing to do. But how to find out if what you are doing is wrong or not? One is comparing your life with someone you admire and wish well. A friend? A Businessman? An Actor? A Comic? Superman? It is important to pick who you want to be like. Most people do that when they are really young. Some do it a bit later in life. Some may never do it. Because they themselves are role models to others.

Everyone craves to be unique. However, not everyone realizes, we are unique by name and SSNs, but mostly we have very ordinary lives. There are things about us that make us unique, but as a whole, our uniqueness is fairly limited, one can say, quite average. So why hold on to this delusion and be unhappy?

Instead consider having a role model. Someone who you admire. Someone worthy. Someone who is intelligent, has the smarts and has respect for people and situation around him. Start to emulate. WWJD? Is a very important question one could ask himself. But who you wish to be the 'J' in WWJD is up to you.

Life as Tetris

Life can mean a lot of different things to different people. But the most interesting analogy is to that of a game called Tetris. Some of you might have played it or know of it. The striking resemblance of Tetris with life is that in neither can one win the game no matter how long one plays it. However, just like in Tetris, in life one can maximize his or her score. To a lot of people maximizing the score would mean getting a decent education, finding a job, playing music, finding love or just satisfying other basic needs. However, a few dedicate their lives to causes of others, travel, write and explore. Fewer of those that choose to explore focus their energy on satisfying their intellectual curiosity, there by asking questions, challenging assumptions and end up exploring our universe around us thereby helping improve everyones understanding of it.

And like in tetris, one can play it for a short time or a very long time. It can be fun, tedious or just plainly stupid. Some break in between - its just bad luck. Some can actually look ahead at the next piece that is going to drop and quickly create opportunities to score higher others just cant figure it out. While, we can have many tries at tetris, with life you have only one chance.

That is a very big difference.

But that is not the only one. What are your odds of a decent score? Can it be improved? While in tetris one can play it over and over again, in life one can draw parallels between peoples lives and learn from it. There is a way of sharing our experiences collectively and utilizing it to prepare strategies for short and the long term. Life is a game of chance just like tetris. One cant really predict whats comming next, but one can prepare for it. Your brother or mother or friend cant do much to help you score more when you are in the game of tetris, but in real life it is possible. Its not just possible, it is essential. Building bridges with family, friends, pals and others are essential to not only live long or be successful but to be satisfied. While, a big score in the game of Tetris can make you happy, it says nothing about the quality of the score. Life is different in this aspect. A bigger score can mean just that and no satisfaction. In tetris love makes no difference, but in life, it can make all the difference.


What is your score today? Are you planning to maximize it? What is your strategy? Whatis your passion? What is your focus? Does your focus meets with what is your passion today? Are they different? Are you postponing focussing on what your interests? Ask today, by tomorrow, the battery might be dead!

Travelogs

Travel is a time tested way of exploring the world around oneself. However, the most interesting exploration one can experience with travel and stay abroad is the discovery of oneself. There is a remarkable difference between the view from within and from without the world we live in. One can see a different perspectives if one can remove himself from the very surroundings he wishes to examine. This helps the person understand why people see him or her as they do. That is, he or she gets a better understanding of himself or herself when viewed from an outsiders perspective. This experience is analogous to posing for a group photograph at a college reunion or a party or a family gathering and then eventually examining a few weeks later after it has been developed and printed by the lab. The emotions are present and captured in the photograph when you are posing in the photo. There are the surroundings that affected your mood, there is the wine that cheered you up or there is the cousin you are envious of, yet when one sees this several weeks, months or years later, the perspective of the picture is different. One cant help but notice, that his view of the same situation as portrayed in the picture has matured over a period of time.

Another aspect of this photo experience is that of sharing. When one travels abroad, people tend to interact with the locals and the expats tend to be the subject of interest. Everything figures in the conversation, the culture, the economy, the politics, religion. One makes a choice of whether to comment on each of these topics or eschew it while choosing to broach upon others. It is hard to miss that we also like to indulge others in our most positive experiences from home. The same holds good with the photograph analogy. We like to show off with some photographs because we look good in it, and there are other photographs that we hide, for no one to see, and then there are some that have a story to it. We show different photographs to different people. Each time while we reveal ourselves to others, we reveal ourselves to ourselves. At this point, we are also very aware of the pictures we are hiding from others, that are not for public display, and yet this very aspect of hiding is revealing to our self. This dichotomy of revealing while hiding cannot be experienced, if sharing does not occur. This sort of examination of ones life, land and culture is not possible if one does not leave ones home country to be an expatriate for sometime. And its not for everyone to experience this either. For some, the pictures of the past has nothing positive to show for. It is filled with agony and examination of these snapshots do nothing more than open old wounds. For others, it is a path to self discovery and understanding of oneself and his past.