Do I need to Stick to StickK.com?

  Nahh..I won’t do this today… I still have a week, before being stalked by the deadline..its just gonno take an hour for it to be done tomorrow.. If its just gonno take an hour for me to do it tomorrow, then why not put that hour in today and finish that job. Thats easier said than done I guess. So much for the influence of procrastination.. This is how the dictionary defines Procrastination: To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness; To postpone or delay needlessly. Yes that’s what all this about.

 Sometimes I feel that I had mercilessly succumbed to the spell of procrastination. One of my worst cases of procrastination was that I had put off sending out my wedding invitations until a couple of weeks before my wedding. Now for the recuperation time.. I was reading about procrastination just on the curious note if it was just me or is it the general framework of the complex human mind. Research states that about 95% percent of the people procrastinate and interestingly, scientists explain procrastination with a mathematical equation. University of Calgary professor Piers Steel, says that procrastination is linked to three human traits, namely, the person's confidence, his values and impulsiveness (how susceptible is he or she to immediate delight). He had derived a mathematical equation to describe the procrastination in terms of these three parameters. Just to avoid complicating my blog with equations, the equation can be found here http://news.cnet.com/A-formula-for-procrastination/2100-1008_3-6149636.html. and it had taken a good whole ten years to come up with this equation!. 

And how about the ways to avoid procrastination, research suggests that the effective way to overcome procrastination is to make it an expensive affair. Based on this idea,  StickK.com was founded by Yale University economics professor Dean Karlan and his colleagues. This webiste helps people avoid procrastination and fulfill their goals by betting their own money. Yes, if one doesn’t complete his or her self-described objectives, they lose the money. And what if you loose your money by procrastinating? The brighter side is win-win situation : the money that one looses would be given off for charity! It does work!!

 

Happiness is contagious…and so is sadness…I am not the only weird one!

Often times I feel that my emotions, my state of happiness or sadness have been greatly influenced by the people who are around me. I can purge with happiness just at the sight of my friends beaming with happiness and at the same time, I can plunge into depression when there is a sad soul around me. Numerous times, I have tried, but failed to delineate my emotions from that of others. The very thought that I cannot control my emotions, myself has left me frustrated. I have often wondered if it was just me? Or is it the way things are? When I tried to look for examples or rather excuses for my behaviour, I couldn’t find any. I felt people with the exception of me were happy for themselves and not for others. Of course it is not an all or none situation when I say that people are not happy for others, its just that they are not influenced by others happiness or sadness. At this stage, I was contemplating if this was of some kind of a syndrome. I had learnt to live with it and still trying to live without it, until today, when I happened to see this article

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-happy5-2008dec05,0,5449915.story

The article talks about the research that was done by the scientists at Harvard and UCSD, in which they state that

“ Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor's sister's friend can give you a 5.6% boost”

and..

"Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people, many of which you don't even know”

I guess, it wouldn’t be funny to call this “Globalisation of Emotions”, when the world is actually geared up for globalisation. Well, for one thing this article read my mind…but for another thing, I wouldn’t try changing it, for that I know now that it isnt going to change,..no matter how hard I tried!.

ME, MYSELF AND TIME....

It flows sans a competitor,
Mellifluosly, yet like a fighter,

It stroms into my vicinity,
Seeming to relieve my gravity,

Alas! shocked by its transience!,
I stood there in silence,

As a silent partner indeed
In its hide and seek

Wish I knew its hideouts
Wish I knew its whereabouts.

Absquatulates when asked to stay,
If Lingers,nucleates a fray

When I start to wonder why?...Time whispers

"All s well when am
Always the way I am,

I flee when most desired,
So that you get geared,

I stay when not required,
let you explore the unexplored,

Thats the goal that drives.
My wheel and thus thrives."


With this it flew away,
like yet an other day!

clueless, where it hails from,
Needless, to mention its tantrum,
Flawless, be its timely execution,
Mindless, acts to atmost perfection।

Baseless, might be its birth,
Careless, let it move forth,
Doubtless, it does deny sanity,
Doubtless, it does deny sanity,

Sightless, despite hues thrown around,
Painless, presumed when gets rebound,
Mindless, still be let in,
Anger can have more than the last grin.

The Day-Part 1

Akshara had been waiting for this day...the day she would come out of the small world of high school and step into the real world. The world of college life.hmmm...is that the real world?..yes to her it was "the relatively real world". May be realtivity does rule the world. Though she knew that she had to swim across the ocean that had been unfelt, stand against the odds which had never been against her, she was for it. As in her name, Akshara which means"imperishable" in Sanskrit, she was one of those kinds seasoned to sustain any kind of adversities. With an array of thoughts flashing in her mind, Akshara was looking out through the windows of the train. She was admitted into one of the best colleges in the country to do something that she had always wanted to do- Designing. In her perspective, every aspect of life was an art by itself and she always felt that this notion had enabled her to enjoy every bit of her life. She was more than happy to be distinct from the mass which chose to be either doctors or engineers. "I am not against science, but I like to be with "the art""..Thats what she says when she is targetted with the usual questions like " why didn't you go into medicine? , aren't u interested in science?" and so on. Though she was very very happy about how things have been shaping up so far, sometimes the happiness was clouded by a small yet stinging sadness. Yes, she had to part with her parents and move to a different city. But Akshara tried to overcome those feelings by often thinking about the prospects that lay ahead. The train came to an halt and Akshara woke up with a jolt to realise that it was her station and only a few minutes were left before the train moved on again. In a hurry , she pulled out the suitcases from the cabin, forgetting that they were heavy. Unable to balance herself, she dropped the suitcase down and the things in her suitcase were scattered all over. " What a begining" she murmered to herself and started putting back the things into the suitcase. She could see hundreds of shoes walking past her..but not a single face. Suddenly she saw another hand that was filling in the suitcase. Suprised, she looked up from the floor to see to whom did the "helping hand" belong to. There she saw this guy whose eyes were filled with sympathy for her. " Don't worry!, I'll help you put them back." he said. Akshara was speechless. Something about him had taken her by suprise. "Thanks" she said to hide her bewilderment. " I am Kasih" he said. "I am Akshara" she said. "Ah thats a pretty name!.....Ok lemme put my bags down the platform so that I can help with yours" saying that he got down the train. Here he was back again helping Akshara to get off the train with her luggage. Little did Akshara know that this was "the day" which would rule the fate of her forth coming days...They kept walking down the platform..........


Wait until "The Day-Part 2"

Words....where have you been???????

There was something in me that was restraining me from writing for an eon.When I say "eon" , I mean it. Its been a real long long time since I had put my mind on to words. The reason?....well... The first time I actually gave it a thought, I was totally clueless and I could think of no other reason expect that the urge in me to write has died. So much for the tinge of pessimism in me. But on feeding it repeatedly to my thoughts, I was bewildered at the outcome. It looked like I had a whole bunch of reasons that had attributed to my current paucity of words!. To name a few...My first love:Research. I was overwhelmingly happy with just that in my life, fear:will I be able to overcome my current frame of mind, should I give it a try?...what if I am unable to retrieve the spirit, suppression of thoughts, hectic though enjoyable trips(trust me, screening and uploading the photos took a toll on my time)...the list would go on to the extent that this comeback blog of mine would be filled with just those. Bearing that in mind, lemme move on. Though after a while, the optimissim outwitted my pessimism. And here I am penning my thoughts again!!!!!!! Wow this had turned out to be awesome!!!... I should say, I have felt exactly the same way as I had before,when I wrote those words!. But I guess I can't leave this issue astray like this...I really dont have a clue if I would be able to pull back again when I end up in this so called " WORDLESS STATE" of mine. So the solution? keep writing! I wish it could be as simple as it sounds..But still there isn't any better way to go about it!

A tip for thoughts..

Firstly lemme me start with the couple of reasons that made me write this blog. The first one being that I had not given it a thought times before and how cumbersome I had felt after realizing that and the second one being that this happened to provide me the topic of reentry into writing blogs ( rather a sling shot for a lazy one!). Ok now lemme delve into the topic.

To start off with news that had excited me over the past few months, I am leaving to the US to pursue my graduate studies (Hip Hip Hurray!!!).Be it stepping into a world where I had always wanted to be in or be it the passion in me to study further, had kept me in the excited state for quite some time. Adding a tip to the excitement, I had been to the conference that was held by USEFI (United States Educational Foundation In India ) yesterday. Basically they had intended to provide the students a snapshot of what to expect and what not, what to do and what not to do out there in the US and well, I should say that they had definitely succeeded in that!. The speakers had narrated their close to heart experiences in the US and I am sure that everyone out there enjoyed every bit of it as I did. Now came the last part of the program.the quiz. There were two rounds on this-the first one was on the US and the second one about India. I guess by now one would have got a faint idea of what I would eventually end up conveying..give urself a pat if you had guessed that right. A number of hands flew up when the questions were posted on the US (infact to the surprise of the quiz master) and now came the questions on India.

When I was expecting a lot many hands to go up now, I saw a lil over a couple of hands going up and that too only a few were right. At this time when the USEFI people were bewildered at such a response, one of them sprung up with a thought which shall never leave your mind forever. This is what she said “ according to me higher studies in the US is like the icing on the cake, but it is out here in India where the cake was made”….if one doesn’t know about the place where the cake was made, it’s a mission unaccomplished...