Social Media Marketing

Career proofing: Flying High! on clouded skies

An amazing 4 hour midnight telephonic conversation and I conclude, I am not made up for phone talk!

I then realized, I did it anyway so may be change IS in the air.

Not trying to jump hoops here. Just getting and catching up with the current market scenario.

Had a wonderful conversation with two very different individuals yesterday which made me blog into ‘The blog is personal again’ section. Both were frustrated & discouraged with their jobs, one had resigned and one was dying to resign. Both had remarkably unique points of view to share on the current scenario.

The one who was free from both income and ‘immediate-earlier’ stress spoke with sheer self-belief of the current industry trend of no / poor job & career opportunities.

I asked him, “How did you take this step then, if the industry is so bad?” He said “I resigned ‘coz the industry is awful anyways, so there is no immediate scale for professional growth in our organization. Whatever be your performance, you would be tagged in with the millions as far as recession in industry goes. So when you know the industry is bad, even the sector that’s doing well refuses to grow or accept growth, so why not resign and start a venture of my dream?”

My long silence, made the optimistically high and free being to continue and add, “When I know what I do for others is not going to get me anywhere, I might as well try to do it for me. If it does not work, I anyway have the industry to blame, its recession everywhere and so if not now, then when?”

I smiled, wished him the best of success and loads of positive morale which he would need whether or not his ‘venture’ clicks.

The other individual still bound by rules, corporate policies and frustrations from one’s superior was very clear, “it’s not a good time to leave. Let’s think about changing careers when the industry does well. I can’t sleep with peace, but can at least pay my daily bills without having to plan or think. What say?”

I had nothing to say, I just nodded.

I realized I have become too patient listening to people. Well, at least one good personal skill I added this year I guessed. But, then I just put forth both queries and pointers together:

1. The industry is anyways bad; why not venture into something new. One can change careers when the industry is good or doing great, we would have better professional career opportunities.
2. The industry is bad. Now, it’s time to just stay putt and follow with the crowd. When nothing works, at least your bills are still getting paid!

Then I felt, I would ask all of you…. What say? What would you choose? What is your take on this?

Give me your views on the same.

Blessedart!

Image Source: ANVCLICKS

day of the glimmering dawn

On an early luminous morning, I rose with the gleaming clouds radiant with the globe of sun lit in the sky.

I got geared up to backpack for my tour to the city of Nawab’s (Hyderabad).

Well I was returning the same evening, so there was nothing to backpack really, but just thought it might add to my reader’s interest of something exciting that might be coming. Ahem!

As I completed with my calorie burning session for the day and drove to the Mumbai Airport I was already waiting for the day to end. Why, ‘coz I felt it was going to be a routine day assignment with zilch added to the learning kitty, so I thought.

Yet, the day went off smooth, with even few new learning’s added to the food for thought pool for the day.

I had ample time still left, so I wandered around the streets. As usual landed where I first start off or end up in most of the cities, at the Art museum.

I was close to Hyderabad Birla Museum center (Art center) and shockingly experienced the utterly un-courteous poorly maintained, staffed with sad and dark minded traditional non art valuing staff and suffocating, hot and humid interiors with no ventilation (No A/c  or fans were switched on even after asking / requesting).  It was undoubtedly the most awfully maintained Art Museum I have ever visited in my entire life.

Left the sad area, not so soon though and later landed in the nearby cool, calm and beautiful Birla garden and saw idols, and sculptures of Gods (Shiva / Nandi) and many others.

SHIVA Nandi

Finally I got my Meru and landed back at Hyderabad Airport and realized I was ONLY 3 ½ hours early than my reporting schedule.  Hmmmm, hungry, famished and extremely glad with the royal treatment received at the Birla Art museum (still could not get it out of my system especially since it was at an Art museum).

Anyways, I went to airport coffee shop and ordered myself a ‘cut the carb and fat down’ Italian Salad Sandwich with a Big Mug of Coffee. Had a relishing meal and got on board. I usually dislike flight food unless it’s Jet.

Luckily the Meru experience was comfortable throughout as I landed back home with few good learning and some bad experiences with a decent meal coupled with my very favourite Coffee.

The day was over as I rolled back under my Mickey Mouse sheet for a sound sleep unruffled and dozed off into the sweet arms of nidra.

 hey, needed to ramble something off my routine at least once in this blog… come on! What say?

Cheers

Long live Art and artists

Ananth’s blogon influences set me thinking on how the persons around us impact our thinking and behaviour. His blog was on the conscious impact of few persons around him. I felt that the impact on the sub conscious mind by our environment is worth thinking of.

Last year I attended a marriage in Chennai. My aunt (father’s younger sister) exclaimed that “you look like my brother in your present attire” or something to that effect. Instinctively, I felt flattered. Why should I feel so? My father, from the time I remember, looked his age and some more. He was severely short sighted, though tall, was stooping, had very less teeth, dark complexioned, with a furious temper and highly rigid opinion on several aspects of life. His was a hard act to follow.  But still, some of his achievements and decisions make us still look up to him and any resemblance-genetic or otherwise- gives us a sense of inner glow. This however comes with some of the turns and twists life takes and compels us look into the mirror and admit reality at least to ourselves.

In Indian context, the first influence is our parents. The first English alphabets and nursery rhyme was taught to me by my mother whose formal education stopped at primary school. Forty six years back, we had come to Mumbai from a small village in Kerala. We had to adjust to a metro life in a hurry. Learning a foreign language and rhyme (twinkle twinkle little star…) was the first step. I have a sentimental belief that since this was the only subject my mother taught me, I was always good at it.

How did our parents express their love to us or to each other? How many of us remember our parents smiling with a shy love or laughing wickedly over an adult joke said privately to each other? Did they hold each other in their arms and dance the way we saw in the movies of 60s? May be so. Did they do it in our presence? Never.  How did this lack of physical or public expression of love (an Indian trait) impact us? Well, most of us – at least in South India- are uncomfortable with a physical expression of love- even of the platonic variety- in public and may be even in private.

What is the situation today? Very difficult to say.  My belief is that today’s youth are caught between the example set by their parents and the peer pressure. What is the right thing to do? I feel that some amount of display of positive emotions strengthens relationships and establishes some bonding.

Peer pressure or friends or lack of it is the next strongest influence in any life. How would lack of peer pressure or friends influence a person? Like many shy persons, I found it difficult to create an easy going friendship with the group in which I was studying or working (hai-bye relationship). I did exactly what I felt like doing. Some of it succeeded due to several factors- some within and some beyond my control.  But the difficulty in creating an easy going “life of the party” kind of relationship remains.

Peer pressure come most obviously in the “science or commerce” kind of decisions post schooling. Most of such decisions are based not on what the boy or girl wants to do in life post education and how attractive that avenue is. Some years back I had asked my cousin (who is a medical doctor (MBBS)) why is there a craze for medical admission when the returns are not commensurate with the efforts- at least in India. He said that it was due to lack of real understanding of the profession and its pressures. Last week’s news article said that the application for medical admission has fallen significantly while demand for engineering admission has surged.  One classic example is the number of engineers who joined for IT related courses even when it was apparent that many of the industry leaders are from different streams of engineering and such streams offered good long term prospects.

There is a big board I see on the way to office every day. It says “To the world you might be one person; to one person you might be the entire world. So drive carefully.” I feel this poignantly states our relationship with those we love very much- spouse, children, parents, siblings etc. Whenever we wear a new dress, after examining the image on the mirror, we go to our spouse and ask hesitantly ‘do I look handsome?’ A small smile of appreciation, a tart comment makes our day. I say to myself- I certainly look handsome in this shirt. I sometimes think that even Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi must be asking their family members about their appearance before stepping into public gaze. This is only a small example how our spouse and/or family members appreciation matters to each person.  Family support is a great strength of Indian way of life and gives an anchor for our life.

Do parents listen to their children?  Yes, they do; especially when children start growing up and express their opinions.  The external environment has changed and is changing so rapidly that only highly self opinionated parents will disregard the views emanating from their children. If we have to keep communication lines open with them, we have to listen, but not necessarily agree with them and provide an adult feedback. Does this influence us? Yes it does. How does it influence us? Not easy to say. But their love and appreciation of our achievements and forgiveness of our failings matters a lot to us- at least to me.

Lastly religion, religious beliefs, practices, rituals and the whole baggage that comes with it. These are so intensely personal that they are hard to pin down or express in a logical or coherent manner. It matters to us hugely. Even lack of belief in all these things matters hugely.  Here again the dominating influence is our parents. We observe them and then decide consciously or unconsciously as to what we should do.

I have not touched up on the influence of our life in service as that deserves another blog.

So who influenced you? Why don’t you look at your parent and start wondering how they have influenced you?

ADDICTIONS: Dying to get Offline, but Alas!

 “Greatness adds to the Good & evil begets evil, as simple as that”

 One 12 year old kid, who was supposed to enjoy his summer vacations by going out or playing till he drops in the heat, was having a horrible day yesterday, because his mother was not allowing him to play the Xbox (which he was playing for more than few hours already).

 He came to me angry with his mom and asked, ‘I am getting bored. I don’t want to go out and play. Can you tell mom to allow me to play on my Xbox so that I can have some fun.’

 I guess, this is what has become when I look around me, except for those very few who are still fortunate, under control and in touch with the real world.

 That’s when it struck me.

 I too have been addicted. I realized that I have become utterly obsessed to the cyber world like millions across the world. Today I am just one among the million less fortunate getting strangled to the today’s ipv4 syndrome – The Internet.

 This virtual platform engineered by those who started it as an information sharing platform has gone manifold through inventions & contributions by great pioneers like Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence G. Roberts, Radia Perlman and few others.

But why do I quote the first line that “greatness adds…..”

I realized the missing link around that could hold me grounded and keep me engrossed in life that is real.

Today, as I scan across my little self-centered murky world, I find all those around fixated to something that is not just contagious, but uniquely contagious, in the sense that, it drives oneself to catch their novel form of addiction on their own.

 Surrounded by those either addicted to the till death do us apart yearning for money or those with a deflective state of philosophical bent through religious dose of daily booze or those obsessed with zero value adding life skills of traditional education or the amazingly exasperating bunch of hardcore shopaholics who have today led me to succumb & snail myself into a smaller world owing to sheer utter boredom.

 I feel suffocated when I end up nowhere but yet ‘find myself’ in a Mall every other day or worst diluting my already troubled fitness regime sitting in a restaurant that is definitely not helping me regain my good old self.

 Why? ‘coz today I am tired of again and again planning a spontaneous tour to a better place or at least a real world around and unfortunately cannot also find,  ‘who can take on ideas to connect to the real world’ & initiate an adventurous outing may be?

I keep trying to reinvent by being innovative and planning to reach out to the outer and real world and sadly find myself in a restaurant or compulsorily on the almost only way to stay connected with each other today – Telephone or even worst in a bar or a again a mall.

The value addition per se seems to be missing at every stage as addiction has caught up with specific religious routines of not thinking beyond the monotonously small world around.

 With so much of information explosion, I am today finding the spontaneity missing around me so much that I chose to get addicted to a virtual world with just a couple of hardware and loads of unnecessary junk from all across the globe.

 As I drift towards spending shockingly gifted long & empty weekends addicted to the virtual galleria, the more I realize the emptiness of adventure and spark with zest and energy around.

 The more I update myself on Web3.0 today, the more I feel sorry for the world of tomorrow that ‘might’ be a part of these uniquely contagious addiction syndromes over a period of time.

 Now that I have done some keying in for the day, let me get back to Orkut or Facebook where I can meet real people, ahem!

 Can’t believe, I am actually dying to get offline!

 What say?

 Let me know your views

 Ananth V – ‘(Still Online)’

Image Source: AnanthV

Twirling Dreams & Blurring Reality

Money, passion, exhaustion and fame…. Drawing to a weekend where serenity was the magic to the tempo of realism called Life!

 Met up with an old buddy, yes, the same friend who shared his dream with me and wanted the same to be shared with all of us through this platform: Choked by a crab

 He said, I want to share another one this time.

 I asked him, “You spend too much time sleeping, don’t you?”

 Thank God, he took it lightly, just the way I had meant it.

 But he meant business as he straight away quoted “I saw a baby monkey running around me with whom I was playing and then feeding a watermelon”

 We knew we were no Birbal, so we got Sherlock.  No, not the web search app from Apple  (That’s still Google for us).

 We got searching and finding all probable combinations. Why? ‘coz my chum seemed quite uneasy and anxious since a couple of days with this and he said, lets put this again on board. 

The combination of a baby monkey being fed watermelon, hmmmmm….

The Web help sources said, That could mean putting jointly emotions of innocence which was trying to be grabbed from the past.,Unsettled triggers of unfinished business from childhood recollections that could have sparked very recently. That with a monkey that was being fed, probably expressing a betrayal of expectation from someone who should have been there more to support you who meant close to you and finally with a fruit that is either about ease or about fiery passion. These were amazing combinations which meant well, nothing to me as now I turned at my buddy.

 Slowly we put the running ball together; I noticed a sneer and a sense of realization on his face. He said, I got my answers, now you quote down your lines.

 His face was composed or a lot calmer now and now that I got that he got it, I was sure I need not try to know what it was.

 But I felt uncomfortable when I quoted his dreams the first time on the blog after he said, go for it. Flash it across. Now a repeated second one made me say to him, ‘it’s not right to talk about your life on a Writers blog.’

 He said a simple line after which I started to key in the new post here.

 He quoted, “It helps me relax to read it across the blog and it helps me know, it’s just out there, happening and makes me feel in control from within. It’s good to flush it out of my system than to burn wakeful from inside in the barrenness.”

 That’s when I realized the influence of Soaps on TV. With Ekta Kapoor and her Dramarama swarming the nation like a wild blaze, people find themselves sharing a part of it, some or any part of it at times and that’s what keeps them at ease and linked day in and day out.

It’s not the actors, it’s not the lines, its Reel reality with a dash of overflowing emotions bundled with of course repetitive unnecessary camera shots. (ya, ya I have seen an episode too.. big deal)

 Well, I don’t know about me, but Ekta definitely built her dreams with it….

 And to my pal, Happy dreaming buddy! Have a good nights sleep!

Chao!

Image Source: Click

When I was 21

 Another ‘good’ year,  or is it?

A stressful month, painful week, draining last few days…. has finally brought me to a not so energetic weekend.

Duh!

It’s 6am IST on a Saturday and I am awake writing a blog…. So take a wild guess!

But yes, I had few other realizations of f late about people and life. They don’t change, they won’t change…. Either we learn to adapt or we learn to let go.

I usually have been habituated to working with a big team professionally and have an extremely choosy few friends. And it’s true what they say. Our friends teach us more than anyone else of things that could be played and done right to socialize. I have been lucky and in awe of few such friends of mine to whom I might not have mentioned this to, but have helped me a lot to gain control of myself and my social life over these years.

Today I understood when Sinatra started by singing when I was 21 as I missed being 21 a lot, when it was a very good year … remember!

 Those who probably knew me two years back, if they wind up discussing with someone who knows me not from yesteryears, would sense they are discussing of different individuals. I changed… for some reason, i changed. Became more calm, more patient and more socially acceptable and human.

So today, I fall flat and confused when I am questioned for being too calm and non-aggressive and on the other when I know how hard I have worked for it.

So what am I to do? Where am I to go from here….

I come from a middle class orthodox family, valuing teachings of the great more than life. I do not obviously abide by those at the same level but I respect the learning’s in every form of practicality in life today.

The quotes and learning from the holy books of Gita, Ramayana, Bible and great leaders and my personal influencers like Mother Teresa, Swami Vivekananda have shared their wisdom across the globe. When I read through them, I feel so shallow in my life of doings.

I have always found peace when I was able to lend a helping hand to someone really needy, be it education, physical help or bringing smile through words of humor. I have lost all that today in the rat race of life.

Recently I received a letter where I have been nominated for Rashtriya Gaurav award (I thank them for my nomination) for my contribution to various NGO’s over the years, but strangely I did not fill up my nomination, because there is so much more to do…… so much of void to be filled, my work has not even begun.

I am not trying to preach like the great influencers, trust me I do not have that audacity anymore. I am merely like a candle in front of the mighty sun, running confused and with chaos on what is to be done more, better and positive…..

The great words from Gods and legends have taught me to just keep pursuing my work and not bother.  But today the days and weeks seemed to be either hooked up on monotonous ideas which itself cracks the point of having ideas or no learning and loads of zero value addition routine tasks or chasing god forsaken numbers or planning them and with nothing coming in return from any of these that could be worth valuing; “TIME” seems to ask me, are these days even going to be worth remembering?

The answer I get is a simple no!

So today I ask my friends who have either massively or in any other way, impacted a positive way of life in me, how do they do it? …

To name a few: Anand P (A humble guy & a master & wizard on traditional High quality education), Amit R (Very helping & his PR skills are better than SRK’s), Ajay K (The most modest, sincere & humble being) who have been my very close friends since decades and of course there are many others who have added and impacted at some level or the other as excellent friends: Beta, Chinki, Kishore, Prakash, Bala, Hari bhai, Sagar, Chintan, Akshay, Prasad, Deva, Mani, Chini, Ankur, Venky and there are those whom I can’t mention owing to uncanny reasons…..

or do they too miss being 21….. Come on fellas, give me your comments…

Quotes from Holy books and some of my personal great influencers:

 “There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.” 

“ Karmani ave adhikars te: –you have the power to act only; ma phalesu kadachana:–you do not have the power to influence the result; ma karmaphal hetur bhoo: –therefore you must act without the anticipation of the result; ma sangostu akramani: –without succumbing to inaction; ” 

“Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet ”

“I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them” 

“I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness”

 

Image Source: AnanthV

Mumbai

As the flames of the city seemed to settle down with the dust, the pace of the city was just as Mumbai would be, quick, chaotic, restless and as always undying.

 What about it’s spirit?

I would not want to quote the routine but yes, the city is once again ready to bow down and salute the real life heroes – Our Officers & commandos.

Our Mumbai did not see any one “Leader” around, probably for reasons of safety and security as the true brave hearts were giving us everything they had that too for those, who only read about them in the daily papers.

As the real law holders fought for us, we the timid people, could watch them shed their blood from our home television sets. But at least the food did not go down our throats for those two days. At least, so much of shame was within, for those who spilled out all that they had for us…..

We mourned, we wept, we screamed inside our hearts in agony as the city was witnessing a fiery night out of nowhere.

As the cowards drew the first blood, it just got too expensive, as by the grace of God, Our Nation was blessed with the brave sons of this soil who kept the crown standing at the same place.

As we rejoice for those who were rescued, as we SALUTE those who saved our souls and as we mourn for the deceased, the flame within cannot fade.

You know why?

You can beat us, you can make us bleed….. but you can’t break us….

This is the Mahatmas land…..

I salute today from my cosy home sitting in my comfortable chair those who have made me feel safer today…. the real heroes who always were the demi-gods.

I bow down to every Life lost and pray for their souls to find peace.

“I only hope one day for this free land…

to be actually free…

from the filthy games

and selfish deeds….

as I found  my city’s crown today….

shattered to many a piece….”

This is Mumbai, Do not ever try this again…..

Pulau Tioman, The great journey!

Day 1: The Journey begins….

I waved goodbye to my parents as the bus sped away.

It was still 6:30 in the morning in Singapore and two Grade 6 classes were going to Pulau Tioman. I felt excited and happy and I was looking forward to the trip. I was soon in conversation with my friends, and before I realised, we were at the border between Malaysia and Singapore. I got off the bus; collected my passport, got it stamped, and made my way back to the bus.

In Malaysia, I mostly looked out the window and saw the beautiful trees, aligned line in line. We got off the bus, took a bio break and entered a ferry. The seats were inside the boat, but most of the students preferred to stand on the open balcony outside to enjoy the cool, refreshing, soft sea breeze.

As I got out, I just expected to have a little bit of wind blowing, but as soon as I was out, a gust of howling wind struck me. I felt delighted and enjoyed the ride all through. Tioman Island was in sight in around 3 hours. As I glanced at the island, the first thing that caught my attention was the size of Tioman. It was massive!

We handed out our luggage to another boatman who was with us and got ready for the mountain climb that lay in front of us. The climb was 8 kilometres through a jungle that was on a steep mountain. My friends company did not let me realise the severe hitting that my feet were taking during the long climb.

We reached the resort in around 3 to 4 hours. We were told our rooms and roommates and were sent to settle in. The room was extremely messy but I realised that I should come out of my comfort zone. We were instructed to take out all our snacks and put them in a large, deep orange coloured box that was placed near the place where we had our meals. This was so that the snacks didn’t attract any more bugs to our cabin.

Day 2: It’s time to play the games!

I woke up to the enchanting colours in magnificent sky. It was still the beginning of dawn and the spectacular sunrise hadn’t even started! I changed into my swimming shorts and UV top (we had to wear our swimming gear from the time we woke up till the time we were given to have showers, which was right before dinner.), I then headed out for breakfast.

Before mealtime, we were meant to take a pleasant walk to the nearby jetty and back just to energise us up a little. After having a scrumptious meal, we played a game called ‘bird on the perch’. The rules were that we first got a partner. One of us had to be a bird, and the other was the perch. Then both of us had to walk around a lengthy line in opposite directions. Whenever the person conducting the game shouted out “Bird on the perch!” the bird had to get on top the perch in such a way that no part of their body was touching the ground. The last team to do this was disqualified. My partner and me made it to the top 3.

After this electrifying game, we were split into two different groups and sent to our first activity, which was sailing for me. The other group would do something else and after lunch, we would switch activities. We were sent off to our activities, but for sailing we needed to know different safety rules. The method of sailing was explained and we were also taught how to get back into the boat if we capsized. We soon set off into the deep, dark, blue sea. I found this activity exceedingly enjoyable although I did tip over a few times J.

After a heavy lunch, we were given 2 hours of free time after which we swapped over with the other group, and did ‘beach arts’. We had to choose a person that we admire. Then you have to make an art piece, using only natural items that we found near the river. We weren’t allowed to uproot any plants or pluck any leaves.

I made a design around a growing plant using bougainvilleas, palm tree bark and mud brown leaves that had dried up in the heat. Everyone liked it and complimented me a great deal.

Then, after dinner, we played a game or two more and at 10:00, it was lights out.

Day 3: A new learning!

The routine began as the first two days, but today our first activity was going to the turtle hatchery for which we took a speedboat to the hatchery. Once we were there, we saw a few baby turtles and Jo, the blind turtle. The hatchery was a protected area with turtle eggs buried in the sand (like they usually are).

When the turtles are born, they are released into the ocean. If the turtle does not go into the water that means it has some disability.

Jo did not go into the water and that is how they found out that she was blind. We helped clean their living areas, and then we learnt about how we can help them (not using too many plastic bags, etc.) and how we could raise awareness in the community. We walked back to our resort, which was quite a long distance away. On the way across the stretched seashore, we had to pick up as much litter as we could so that the beach looked neat and so that items made out of plastic couldn’t affect the turtles. After lunch, we went to do our one star kayak training in the river. We were told different methods of kayaking and then we had to carry our kayaks into the river and we kayaked around one kilometre.

It was extraordinarily thrilling and I think that was my favourite activity in the whole trip. We also played a game. The rules were:

• We got into teams
• We had to be touching different ends of the river (the width, not the length which is countless miles)
• The referee throws a buoyant yellow ball and both teams have to try and get it
• If the ball hits you, your kayak or your paddle by someone in the opposite team, you are disqualified
• If it misses you and falls into the water, you can fetch it and throw it at your opponents

It was a great load of fun although my muscles were pounding in pain because of the kayaking. We were given some time to swim in the sea before changing and going for dinner. After dinner we started to note down some things so that we could remember what we did in the trip later onwards. Then it was time to sleep.

Day 4: Thoughts in solace!

I opened my eyes as the teacher woke us up by knocking on the door. We were directed to wear clothes appropriate for trekking and headed out into the striking morning. After our walk, and during breakfast, we were told that we were going to trek towards a waterfall that was on a mountain nearby.

The snacks from the ‘Orange Box’ were divided and an equal amount was given to each student to carry. Later at the waterfall, we were going to have a feast where we were going to distribute the snacks.

The hike started, leading us into the jungle. We were soon deep in the forest with rocks in our way and trees all around. Suddenly, we came to a halt. Rob (from the outdoor education department at my school) explained that we were going to do an activity called SOLO. As the name suggests, we were going to spend some time (we are not sure how long as we were meant to be unconscious about time- they even asked us to give them our watches) alone in our own space. The closest person will be more than fifty meters away.

After explaining what to do in the case of emergency, we were spread across the area of 1.35 kilometres (27 people x 50 meters) and we thought our own thoughts. We were also not allowed to talk.

The jungle itself was deadly quiet, as if a tough, enchanted charm had been spread across the rough woodland. But it was also alive with noise because it was so quiet, I could hear twigs snapping, monkeys chattering, leaves flying in the strong wind that was howling in my ears. I saw trees, as I couldn’t see much; my path was totally blocked by grand, tremendous, towering trees. The most interesting thing I saw must have been the tree that was shaped like a dog. It had a hole in the branches for eyes, leaves for ears, and through another hole, I could see the emerald green leaves from the other trees behind it and the hole looked just like the mouth. I felt tired and energetic, both at the same time. Suddenly, my group appeared and I realised that my SOLO time was over.

We resumed the stride and marched over to the waterfall. We sat on some rocks and took out the snacks. After having an admirable feast, we went swimming in the flowing water. The water was freezing but it was still fun. The fall was only around 6 meters high from the ground. There was a place in the waterfall where we could climb up to and glide down, as there was a structure like a water slide. After about 30 minutes of fun in the water, we started strolling back to the other hotel where the other grade 6 class was staying (both of the classes stayed at 2 different hotels. Their hotel was near the turtle sanctuary) and had our lunch there. We returned back to our hotel, dropped our bags, changed into our swimmers and we went jetty jumping. We could jump off right from the top or from a lower area. I wanted to jump from the top one but my legs didn’t act upon my thoughts and so I got 2 jumps at the lower spot. It was still great fun. We then had dinner and then came the moment we were all waiting for…

THE BONFIRE!

The bonfire was only 20 minutes but everyone still enjoyed it, telling jokes and horror stories. We also learned a campfire song that a tribe of Africa sung every night during their campfire. They lived in the desert and they sung it so that if there were someone lost in the desert, they would know that help was near. Every one slept without any effort, as we were extremely tired.

Day 5: Taking the route back home!

That morning, we woke up earlier than usual to go snorkelling. It was exciting and adventurous. We saw schools of minuscule fish, firm coral reefs, vibrant multicoloured fish, and countless other things, which I can’t, record here because there are too many to list. We had a quick breakfast, made ourselves sandwiches for our lunch and packed them in a waxed plastic bag. We headed off to the jetty to take the ferry back to Malaysia’s mainland. The ferry and the following bus ride back to Singapore took over 9 hours. I was incredibly happy to be back home because after all it’s always, Home Sweet Home.

Thank you for reading and do let me know your comments and views on the same.

Aditya K

School Ecole Mondiale

As I pondered at the starry sky for the moments that were spent I could plainly see the spills on the carpet and the stains on the mattress. I kept thinking I needed to improvise, a change would be good said my sanely perplexed brain.

Again, the dove flew off like the starry night before. Today, it reminded me of a work of art from one of the famous Italian painters and my mind wandered into one such artists words. He had said that an object that has been assimilated or formed and now needs no addition, no editing and no change is pure beauty…

Thank god for those famous quotes by artists.

That’s what I felt today, at the end of the day… it was beautiful… it was stunning… it was pure and perfect ….. simply because it was “SIMPLE”

My brain came to the present and looked at the wonderful things that were gifted to me till date.

It did not make me overlook the demands and the twinge, but gave me enough nerve to keep fighting, never go down on hope and have a conviction, a stronger faith in myself.

I had a horrible yesterday but had an awesome day today.

Had an amazing and astounding 10 hour sleep (keeping in mind my usual sleep of not more than 4-5 hours), woke up fresh, had a glass of my favorite mixed fruit Tropicana, did some workout and had a stupendous brunch fit for a king with a great friend of mine who also is an important part of my routine, someone from whom I take a lot of advice.

The day ended perfectly with a call from my side to a very kind and sweet relative wishing him on his birthday today which is a huge deal because of the fact that I barely remember even my own birth day.  

At the end of the day, I had good food, great friend, amazing family and an awesome book to read not to mention my grand day with loads of real keeping fit routine and some virtual game plays on my computer.

So, I had grown up a bit today but with zest and loads of energy.

I was responsible for something that was not part of my job, I was with and around those who cared and vice-versa, I put enough energy into my physical and mental training today and after a long time could write a simple post for a blog, not too long and just like my day, could keep it simple.

So I guess, it’s not just the remarkable mind blowing things that make impact on us. It’s also these simple aspects from our everyday that make us cheerful, gives us hope and courage to face life with belief, dedication and optimism.

So….

When things go wrong

And life gets crude

Hang on to the soulful hope

That never keeps you aloof

Kiss her hand and breathe in her heart

Sing a song to the blues

and play your part!

— Ananth V

god bless and be well

Image source: http://ananthvclicks.wordpress.com

Ananth V