Thursday, January 29, 2015

Ramayana: The Game of Life - Book 2 - Shattered Dreams- Review -

Shattered Dreams is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series Ramayana - The Game of Life. Twelve joyful years have passed in Ayodhya since the wedding of Rama and Sita at the end of Book 1.



Shattered Dreams, as the name suggests is the journey from negative to positive . From the darkness of exile to the sunshine of the kingdom that awaits. This book is a motley of leadership / motivational principles told in an interesting story telling format . A typical working or corporate life, its ups and downs and the way one needs to react in such situations is what the book is aimed to answer ( or aids in decision making )
It also , in certain parts tries to take a typical family plot and goes deep dive onhuman relationships & their workings.

Couple of quick pointer summaries :

  • Don’t read this book with the intent to finish it . Read it and re-read it with a quest to understand what are the deep meaning things that come out .Life , that we live today is no different than what was in the days of the book . It’s just that the characters have changed and so have the situations. Rest remains same.
  • At times and mostly I would recommend keeping aside the ‘Ramayana’ that we have all seen up as growing kids.  These are not exactly mirror to mirror when it comes to the book .
  • The story as it unfolds can become long and at time boring .  Take a break , rethink what you read and how can you fit or learn from this .  This is what I did and it helped me sail through .
  • The Neethi (moral) are the foot notes on each page that will act as a quick summary guideto understand what all is this about.
  • Each character has something to tell us , learn from and mostly un-learn about. At times , I felt that I could relate to some of the characters and the situations they were in.
  • I felt that it would have been better if I would have read the first part - Ramayana The Game Of Life-Rise Of The Sun Prince-Book 1  . This would have helped connect better.
  • The book is a good pick / gift to / for people from any age group. The way it’s shared and explained is not only a good read but an insightful one as well.
  • Author Shubha Vilas, is a spiritual seeker and a motivational speaker, holds a degree in engineering and law with a specialization in patent law. He also helps individuals apply the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and other dharmic traditions in dealing with modern- day life situations. Interesting profile I must say.



Two favorite insights from the book :
  1. The five tips on management a good leader should adhere to – respect, decision making, reputation, character and team management .
  2. The costliest currency in the market is trust. With it, one can buy the share of confidence, which, in turn, can buy everything else. The real exchange rate of the currency of trust can be determined only during troubled markets.



This review is a part of the biggest  Book Review Program for BlogAdda . Participate now to get free books!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Temporary is permanent , mostly



I used to think that certain things and people, in particular are permanent in life.  However, like most things and people in life , these also change . Hard thought though !!

During one of my recent travel trips I happen to meet upon an individual or a learner as I would call who actually gave a very beautiful insight as to how temporary and moving is the world and how can we be a little too sure of ensuring we don’t end up in getting caught on the wrong side of this moving flow.

I will take an example. 

During my school days moving classes was a big fun activity.  Every time I moved classes I used to give a long list to my folks – new school bag , new water bottle , new tiffin box , new pencil box ( those days the ‘button wala’ pencil box was in ) and new shoes and new stationary . I used to love them . It was these ‘ new’ things I guess which propelled me to study hard and ensure I get them.

If I were to look back now these were all wasteful expenditures. At that point in time I used to love them, may be for a week or two and then they were just a part of the routine.  I no longer cherish such a thought and neither I see myself advocating this in the future.

If you see in this case permanency is a far cry .

Second case in point is of a person . 

This person is someone I knew since my childhood days . We were family friends and became good friends over the time .Eventually, study friends and then engineering friends.  As life was to have a say, this person moved abroad and eventually started a new life there . However, some way or the other we stayed in touch and till date are strongly connected .

If you see in this case we ‘wanted ‘ to be in touch , we ‘cared ‘ for each other and above all we ‘ensured’ that we were in touch .  Permanency , may be a way of looking at this connect .

While you may say the above two are not apple to apple cases but yet have one thing in common.  And that is– ME and what I chose to take forward.

Now let me tell you something a little offbeat. For a name reference sake , lets call this person as Varun whom I met on the travel trip . He shared an important thought provoking experience. This person lost his entire family and his education was almost in woods.  But , like we say if God is harsh to us on certain things , he would be sweet to ensure that our  life does not come to a standstill . Varun worked hard and did odd chores and managed to sail through . And this was just the start . He cleared the UPSC and is now a SDM . 

He could have also been struck through the temporary things in life which happened though it may have caused some permanent damage. Yet , he decided to ensure that these temporary things did not become permanent .

That’s the crux of life.  Ensure we are always moving since life will always balance the positives and negatives that you get . Which one you would want to incline onto will change the course of tide for you.

Same is the case with people and things . Both of them , if they no longer serve any purpose have no place in your life .  Remove them and move ahead .  Recollect the case , when you did not want to do something but still did since you knew this was good for you may be if not today but in the long run for sure. You were hard on yourself that time but this is what you will cherish in times to come.

I know its a tough to understand what I shared but I did try my best to make it simple . Believe me , noone can damage or call the shots for you unless you want them to . People or things.  Live a life that is worth sharing and caring and try to create a temporary difference in someone , permanently for him to take forward.

PS - I was up today on a Saturday morning and was out for a much needed movie break and I honestly like watching - Taken 3 .    Though , 1 was the best followed by 2. Mr.Mills really loves his daughter !!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

I Too Had a Love Story

PS :The below read may make you a bit sad or unhappy or experience related feelings.

A chance meeting with Ravinder Singh made me realize how actually in life dreams get shattered, literally.  Why do we miss someone and what happens when that ‘someone’ goes away from you forever. Or , you decide to step away from that ‘someone ‘ forever.

Ravinder met his girlfriend who died in 2007 before they got formally engaged. He adapted his own story into a novel- I Too Had a Love Story  .  Rest is a read and a journey he took on his own.



It’s hard to connect with someone but for the mere mortals that we are and the heart that beats we do get what I call not feelings but ‘connects’ for certain people whom we meet in our life journey . However, the truth, that is always harder is that not every one of them is meant to stay in your life and that’s precisely the reason why we always need to keep in charge of our connects which is our heart.

Over the time and not necessary after reading the book, I have myself realized and concluded that destiny is something you can’t and won’t be able to change. No matter how hard you try. Also, you won’ t have any control on the people you meet in this life , people with whom you connect with or people with  whom you would want to connect. What is meant to be will be and duly given to you. 

To explain, whenever we meet someone we always try to paint a picture of that person. That’s how we work and that’s how the brain and heart works. Over time, due to both sides we connect and start foreseeing something which I call as dreams. Dreams like we all know are nothing but illusions and illusions are only suited to magicians who we are not.  Then why dream ?

Hard to say and even tough to follow . I understand and can relate to this completely  . That’s what is called as self-control and self –realization. Always remember, there will be a time when you will be all alone and like you came to this earth all alone , you will leave this place all alone . So , linking something or someone isn't really going to be of much use . 



What will be important for your life on this planet is how much goodness you spread and how true were you with ALL the people you ever met , you pursued and you connected with .  Believe me , this will help save a lot of bloodbath and make you far more at peace than anything else.

Life teaches you most of its important lessons in a hard way.  The reason is not to test you against them and fail you but to ensure you pass with a twinkle .

Sharing something interesting I came across /read / wrote  / tweaked   ;

Something’s in life never change,
Sometimes in life you don’t find reasons,
Some moments in life aren’t forgotten,
Sometime you lose hope …
When time rolls by you try to forget
What holds you on …
Some people in life are a part of you ,
And when you let them go,
You never lose them .
Because ….
You find them living in you.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Neemrana & the big city

It was a beautiful new year’s eve . What made it beautiful was not that the year was ending, after all the date change happens every day and so does the time which changes every second.  It was something more.  

I am not sure how many of you have gotten a chance to visit a tiny village near Alwar called as – Kesroli .  The best place to stay here is -   http://the-hill-fort-kesroli.neemranahotels.com/ .



As I stepped out of the ‘mahal ‘(that’s what they call rooms in- here) I truly felt elevated. It was the sheer feel of being in Rajasthan and being amidst peace where life moves at a pace defined by the people who stay here.  Believe me, you would want to stay here forever not because you are staying in a palace but you are in a surrounding where you feel at peace with yourself.

As I happen to sip an early morning tea (though I am a coffee person) I was joined by Elena .  She happens to be a globe-trotter and loves capturing the ‘speed’ of cities as she says.Together we decided to head out for an early walk . As we scrolled through the village we realized that even before the start it came to an end and we ended up thinking how easy life would be if everything would be so simple and only need based .

People here have one ambition - to be happy . They don’t want to run after money , power or what we big ‘city’ folks call as – ambition .  Here , they want to have a family , a wife who is loving and caring and a kid or two , may be who bring the ‘ noise’ in the small home. Men, usually have small land piece/s that they work in through the day and earn a living.   At end of the day the entire family gathers around a small stove or a ‘chulla’  , sit on the ground and everyone shares a meal and enjoy a blissful night’s sleep.



Imagine this in contrast to what some of us big ‘city’ folks tend to do or are usually  doing .   We step out early to chase our dreams ( as we would like to call ) , step in late evening at our PG accommodation ( or homes , as  our family calls them ) and then again get wired to the already wireless devices .  Did you find an iota of peace or happiness in all of this ?  The answer is something we all know.  And we all are aware deep down within . That’s one of the reason why we big’city’ guys take breaks , one of the good things that we still try to do.

As Elena said, it’s not important to have a profile that speaks volumes of you. Its important to have a life that lets you live and live freely and speaks about you.


My FACEBOOK page is LIVE now . Click here 


Aloha on the Ganges

2021 has been occupying to start with. It felt as if January had 365 days and not just 31 days. Have met some lost souls, some damaged soul...