Being Judgmental..

           I have been thinking about this for quiete a time now.. Isn't it true that we tend to judge a person from the information from internet!! The Orkut profile, facebook profile..I dont understand why do people actually draw conclusions from the Orkut or Facebook profiles(Am I drawing conclusion now??)..We all tend to judge a person from the universities that person went to, the kind of friends he/she has, the photos that are being uploaded, where the person was born and brought up..I hope I have covered atleast 10% of the information available..I really don't deny that the parameters mentioned above give some judgement of "the person"..But I want to say that it is just 10-15% of his /her life..We just forget that "the person" is more than information available..I think meeting someone in person is way different from judging them from the information available..Many times we tend to judge the person and then just lose a great opportunity to meet him/her..I don't want to keep writing now..Why don't we all ask ourselves, have I ever missed an opportunity to meet a very nice person just because of preconceived notions?Am I being judgmental? Am I loosing on those n number of fantastic people just because of my notions??

एक ऊनाड दिवस..

               मला कधी कधी कळतच नाही की चांगले मराठी चित्रपट माझे कसे काय बघायचे राहतात?? मुंबई पुणे मुंबई असो किंवा सावरखेड: एक गाव..सरीवर सर असो किंवा सातच्या आत घरात..आता त्यात भर पडली आहे या चित्रपटाची..एक उनाड दिवस!!

            आज मी फार छान picture बघितला..एक उनाड दिवस..खर तर उशीराच बघितला, पण atleast बघून तरी झाला..अशोक सरफान्नी फार मस्त काम केलय यात..दाभोळकर अगदी जीवंत उभे केलेत.. तसा पाहिल तर दाभोळकर आपल्या सगळ्यासारखेच..घडयाळ्याच्या काट्याला बांधलेले.. स्वताच्या नियमंमधे स्वताच अडकलेले..

             योगायोगाने त्यांना एक दिवस मिळतो , मुखवटा बाजूला ठेवून जगण्याचा..लोक काय म्हणतील याचा विचार न करण्याचा..कधीही न केलेल्या गोष्टी करण्याचा..सामान्य माणसाच आयुष्य जगण्याचा..एक दिवस ऊनाडपणे हुन्डडण्याचा..

          ही फक्त त्या एक दिवसाची गोष्ट..त्या एका दिवसात दाभोळकरांच्या आयुष्यात किती मोठे बदल होतात..ते किती वेगावेगाल्या व्यक्तिंना भेटतात..पैसे कमी असून सुद्धा अगदी आनंदी माणस बघतात..आयुष्य १५ वर्षांनी वाढवतात!!

         मी बराच वेळ विचार करत होते, खरच आपण काय करतोय? आयुष्य चांगल घालवण्यासाठी आयुष्य जगायला विसारतोय..आपल्यातल्या दाभोळकरांना एक ऊनाड दिवस देऊन तर बघुया..एक दिवस ऊनाडपणे फिरून तर बघुया..बघुया आयुष्य वाढतय का?? आयुष्य वाढण्याच माहित नाही, पण उरलेल आयुष्य जगण्याचा नवीन दृष्टिकोण मात्र नक्की मिळेल..

        याच चित्रपटात एक छान गाण आहे..त्याबद्दल काही बोलण्यापेक्षा, ते गाणच इथे लिहिते..

        

        हुरहुर असते तीच  उरी.. दिवस बरा की रात्र बरी...

        कुठला रस्ता सांग खरा.. वळणाचा की सरळ बरा..

        जगणे मरणे काय बरे.. सुख खरे की दुख खरे..

ताई, जीजू आणि bloomington

               मागच्या आठवड्यात bloomington ला जाऊन आले. खूप खूप मज्जा केली..One of the best weekends in US. गेल्या गेल्याच इतकं छान वाटलं..अगदी घरी गेल्यासारखं!! मी तर त्या दोघांना बघूनच खूप खूष झाले होते..

मग घरी जाऊन मस्त जेवण केलं!! खूप खूप गप्पा मारल्या!!

              शनिवार आणि रविवारी तर आम्ही इतके picture बघितले!! Movie marathon almost!! अगदी nonsense comedy पासून ते 2012 , मी नथुराम गोडसे बोलतोय अशा serious नाटकांपर्यंत!! अमेरिकेवर झालेल्या ११ सप्टेंबर च्या हल्ल्याच्या documentaries पासून तर "जानकी लावण जासूस "..पण महत्वाची गोष्ट अशी कि या सगळ्या गोष्टींवर आम्ही भरपूर चर्चा केली...त्यातून आपली match सुद्धा होती..काय वाईट हरलो..शेवटची ओवर तर बघू सुद्धा नये अशी होती..सचिन ने एवढे जास्त runs करून पण काही उपयोग नाही झाला..

             लहानपणीच्या आठवणींबद्दल बोलताना तर किती वेळ गेला कळलं पण नाही..तस बघितल तर जिजूंशी  ओळख पहिल्यांदाच झाली.. लग्नात काय ओळख होणार कोणाची!! जीजून्सोबत बोलताना बर्याच बऱ्याच गोष्टिन्वर नव्याने विचार झाला..अशा अनुभवी लोकांसोबत वेल घालवला की गोष्टींचे नवीन पैलू दिसतात..सगळ्यात महत्वाची गोष्ट म्हणजे, इथे आपल्यासोबत कोणीतरी आहे ही भावना  पण खूप वेगळी अणि छान असते..

 ३ तासांचा (flight) अंतर म्हणजे फार काही नाही हे सुद्धा जाणवते..

             तिथे गेल्यावर एक कळलं, कि कितीही सुखसोयी असल्या इथे तरी परत जावसं वाटतच..ते दोघं इथं ३ - ४ वर्षांपासून राहत आहेत. इथे सगळं असूनही परत जायची ओढ आहे त्यांना..आता यात मी काही फार वेगळा विचार मांडत  आहे अशातला भाग नाही.. 

It's a marathon, not a sprint!

              I was reading this interview where Melinda Gates puts everything in those words.It's a marathon, not a sprint.My mom always says the same thing. I think Mrs Gates gives us the summary. Think about this sentence in any context, may be life, career, studies.It just applies there..It's not a sprint.In these turbulent times, one has to understand the long term consequences of whatever actions he/she is taking.More about it later.
              Lets get back to the interview. Apart from being Mrs Bill Gates, Melinda Gates is known as Philanthropist and a businesswoman. In this interview with Shine correspondent, she opens up and gives some nice insights. Apart from talking about her current projects, she spoke about work-life balance. She puts it as," I am going to do the best I can on given day"..I think she is right, sometimes we have to just give ourselves a deadline. I faced similar situation last week, the project had to end somewhere, offcourse I  can do better, but not at the cost of everything else..I think we all should understand that there is somewhere everything should have a limit.Everything should have a deadline.There is a limit to what one can do in given amount of time.
             One of the insights that stuck me from the interview is the best advice  Melinda ever received. She says the best advice she has ever received is to be herself. I think thats really a very simple thing and may be the hardest thing too..She says follow your passion.I think we all know that.But lets ask a simple question, Am I doing that? Am I really following my passion?

A fantastic surprise: Notes to myself

             It was just a normal Saturday morning, woke up a bit late. Was busy in doing some assignment.Then in the afternoon , I decided to go to the lab. I was just going out and saw a packet on the shoe rack. It was a parcel for me from anonymous. I was excited. अरे वा पार्सल!!! ते पण निनावी!!! (भावना मराठीत नीट व्यक्त होतात ना!!) I opened it and when I saw what it was, I almost jumped!! खरतर उडीच मारली..There was something, I always wanted, something I had forgotten about, something a friend of mine had suggested as a "must read"..So without creating more suspense, let me say what it was..There was this book called "Notes to myself: My struggle to become a person"

            I could not believe that, this person actually shipped it to me!!I was speechless. डोळे भरून आले अचानक..I don't even want to say Thank you because the gesture is much more than that..And I am sure, my thanks won't be accepted..Then I had to leave to the lab, but could not thinking about the book! From the lab I went to gym and started reading it while I was on the treadmill. Time passed and I did not understand.. I was reading the book, sometimes I had to pause my reading and think about it.I finished 50-60% of the book before I realized that it has been a long time!!(trust me it was "LONG" time)..Now I understand why the phrase 'time flows' is used..

            I feel this book is something you can not read at a stretch. Because every note has a lot many things to say.And the best part is you can read this book as many times as you feel like because every time you are surely will get something different..

            The book is written by Hugh Prather..Its not a book in traditional sense, as there is no flow or story..There are short notes. Entirely different from each other. The author describes it very well.He says it was essentially a stack of yellow sheets where  I went to sort things out, where I put down my pains and problems and my very deep longing to break through some truth.

             I am yet to finish the book, but I will just put a note for you.There is nothing called the best note amongst all, because every note has something very deep to offer. So here are a couple of notes, so that you all start reading it.

            "Now that I know I'm no wiser than anyone else, does this wisdom make me wiser?"

            "The rainbow is more beautiful than the pot at the end of it, because the rainbow is now.And the pot never turns out to be quite what I expected"

            "Today I don't want to live for, I want to live"