Vision for my life!

After spending almost half of my life and abandoning many of my previous (so called) vision statements, I have started pondering on this question again - "What should be the longest term vision for my life?". Sometimes when I lay back and think about it, it feels ridiculous that I am having such thoughts ("vision" and all!! bullshit!! what am I trying to prove? I am not an ordinary person but a "visionary"???). Why can't I just enjoy my life with my happy family (which fortunately I have) and forget thinking about all this non-productive ideas?

But all my efforts till now have gone in vain. The more I have tried to suppress this thought, the more stronger it has become in due course of time. No doubt I go through some phases when trying to get rid of this thought becomes very difficult. This time the matter is serious and desperation levels are high. My wife has started showing concern about my absent mindedness (because my mind is always preoccupied with such thoughts). Am I going crazy?

But enough of my cribbing. Let me tell you what have I really thought about it till now. I would try to put all my thoughts in the form of questions and my analysis of it. Please note that I am not trying to conclude anything in this blog. I can not; even if I want to. I am still suffering from "What is the vision of my life?" syndrome. I am just trying to share my thoughts which might be useful for somebody who is suffering with the same dilemma.

Q - Why should I have a vision for my life?
A (stands for my Analysis) - Sometimes I feel that in taking care of all the nitty-gritties of my life, I am missing the bigger picture. I can not be here just for 'living' this life. I am here to contribute. I am here to make this life worth remembering and thinking of. I want to feel that I am an integral part of this whole drama of life and I am making a difference. And for doing all this, I should know what exactly I have to do. And for that I should have a vision which gives a direction to my life.

Q - Why having a vision is so important anyways?
A - Many a times I get this strange thought that I am about to die and I am looking back at my life; from the time of my birth till now. I get very scared when I feel that I would be seeing my life as a meaningless bread earning affair. My God! I spent whole my life processing different kind of food and transforming it into shit?? And for generating this shit, I worked so hard!! No way! These should not be my thoughts in my last moments in this incarnation. I should do something remembrance of which would bring smile on my dying face.
Goals are very important for quantifying what did I do in my life. And goals without a vision are useless.
Was I able to attain the final goal of my life? But asking this question makes sense only if I have a vision.

Q - Should I have a single vision for our lives or it can be more than one?
A - Most of us have one or both of the below mentioned reasons for living their lives as they are as of now:
1. They want to achieve something for self.
- I call it personal vision.
2. They want to do good/bad to others. 'Others' may include their family, friends, society, country, world etc etc.
- I call it a grand vision. The degree of grandness depends on who those 'others' are.

I think everybody on this earth, in someway or the other has both of the above mentioned motives behind all their actions. I agree that the weightage of these two keeps varying throughout our lives. But at a broader level, these are the two generic visions which drive everybody even without we noticing it.

So, it is good to keep both of the above mentioned visions. Also, for me it looks like a vision can be divided into small goals. Here we should not confuse goal with vision. We can have a vision which keeps us driving and it can be divided into small goals.

Q - What should be the expiry date for a vision?
A - I think visions should be timeless. But note that by timeless I do not mean impossible to achieve. We should be able to just keep working towards it. It keeps giving us new goals to achieve.

Q - How should I conclude on a vision of life?
A - Firstly, while thinking of a vision, one should not consider his/her capabilities. Farther the vision of future are, better they are. Visions are not goals which have to be "achieved" but are constant driving forces. This is one of the differentiating factors between vision and goal. Vision helps us in deciding goals.
Secondly, a vision should be based on principles (which do not change). In my opinion, vision should be derived more from the spiritual plane than worldly one.

For deciding on grand vision, I would say benefit of others should be given the prime importance. Also, if we have to expand this vision to others, it has to be made a shared vision. So, it should be sharable with like minded people.

Conclusion - For me, it is a constant process of learning through introspection. So, it is very difficult to conclude anything. I would expect that readers would provide me more clarity of thought and help me in deciding a vision or two for my life. :)

My Visit to Delhi and Uttaranchal

Guys,
I had been to Delhi and Uttaranchal last week. Occasion was my cousin's wedding in Roorkee. We Utilized this opportunity and visited Haridwar and Hrishikesh which are 24 and 35 kms from Roorkee respectively. These places are predominantly religious ones but they also have incomparable scenic beauty.

Roorkee is a small town which mainly has Army cantts and IIT, Roorkee. Luckily, the place where we stayed was in front of IIT gate. So, got a chance to visit IIT also. Needless to say that the campus is well maintained and world class facilities are provided to the students.

We started for Haridwar on 22nd Jan. It took around 45 minutes to reach "Har Ki Paudi" in Haridwar. Here I would like to mention that I have stayed in Varanasi for one year and have seen Ganga there also. But this river is so polluted there that I used to think twice before putting even my feet into it. But in Haridwar, Ganga is so pure that you can directly drink water from the river(Now I know where these mineral water bottles come from :)). Ok, so we took bath in the river and thanked god for providing a shortcut to wash out all our sins in one go :). The water was ice cold. At the beginning we could not even get inside the water but ones we were in, it was a nice fun. After taking bath, we performed a small pooja and started for Hrishikesh.

Hrishikesh has only two important places to visit apart from numerous Ashramas. These two are Ram Jhoola and Lakshman Jhoola. Also note that when you visit Ram Jhoola, you must go to the famous "Chotiwala Restaurant". The food out there is excellent and service is also good. Also, you would be greeted by a colored person sitting on a throne with a prominent choti. And this explains the restaurant's name.

On our way back to Roorkee, we visited "Shanti Kunj Ashrama" founded by Pundit Shri Ram Sharma Acharya and Shrimati Bhagwati Devi Sharma. The ashrama is a very good place to meditate and for getting involved in various religious activities.

And how can I forget to mention Baba Ramdev's (The famous Yoga Teacher) "Patanjali Yogpeeth". That place looks like a 5 Star hotel. It has got all the facilities possible. Without getting into controversies and begging pardon from the devotees of Baba Ramdev, I would like to tell that whatever he is, he has got a brilliant business mind and has very good leadership skills. In Strictly positive sense, I would recommend that our MBA students should leave Lalu Yadav for Railways and take some classes from these Babas and Gurus.

I returned to Delhi on 24th after attending the wedding and relaxed for two days and spent some nice time with my family. On 27th January, we visited "Akshardham Temple" in Delhi. If I have to explain this place in one word then I would say "Unbelievable". The architecture and marble stone carvings are simply unmatched. It is spread out in acres of land and has 4 main temple-like buildings. The main temple has an idol of "Sri Narayanaswamy". Even for most of the people like me who are not a follower of this sampradaya, it is a highly recommended place to see. It seems slightly exaggerated but I would say that people who visit India must see two things, one is Tajmahal and the other is Akshardham Temple.

Note that if you want to save time during the Akshardham visit, don't take big bags, mobiles, cigarettes etc with you. It saves the time which I spent in filling up forms and waiting in the queue for depositing these things with the security.

Extremely sorry for not adding snaps. I did not have my digital camera with me. I certainly have some snaps taken from my old camera which I can get scanned and publish.

New Year Blast

Had a nice time with friends on new year's eve. The venue was Manish's house and Kaal, Hemant and Myself were invited. As usual we were busy B. Chatting (our way of gossiping) for hours.
We have surely matured with time but still our wild instincts have not died and whenever we meet, we talk and 'discuss' about unimaginable stuff. The specialty was home food. Thanks to Shweta and partially to Leena. And how can we forget the major contributions of Manish towards preparing Aaloo-dum. We people just had to chat and hog (literally, believe me).

Thanks to Manish ji for making this happen.