::JUDGEMENTS::

So the other day I was going to my college by bus. I had forgotten to carry my earphones (I hope you know how fatal that feeling is). I had nothing to do! I was soooo bored! So in the end, I ended up looking out of the window of the bus and started imagining how the people I was looking at were living their lives. I saw people of various kinds- few homeless people, few in lavish cars, few carrying their briefcase and going to their office; and began imagining in what manner they were living their lives. I wondered if they were happy with their lives or not, how their nature was and blah-blah-blah.

But then I asked myself- what the hell are you doing, you piece of awesomeness? (:P) I did not know the answer myself. Then I realised that I was just judging strangers to pass my time. But mind you- there are people passing time judging the people they know; and the 'people' I'm talking about are the seven billion Homo sapiens (humans, duh) who are living on this planet. Let's deal with it- we ALL judge people. We all have some or the other opinion about different people. We even make certain people the victim of prejudice! 

But is judging people the correct thing?
Personal opinion- HELL NO! Has the person given you the right to judge them? Fella, even God doesn't pass his statement until the Judgement Day, so I don't think you are correct when you judge people. If you have ever heard about what other people think about you, and you think that it is completely wrong, normally you'd be hurt. Well, that's how the other people would feel when you pass any judgement about them (because after all, they are Homo sapiens too :P). You cannot judge them because you don't know everything about them or their life. You cannot solve he equation till you have all the variables (unless you're preparing for JEE- in that case, you just CAN'T solve the equation).

Sometimes, others ask you about what you think about a certain person. At that time, if you say something wrong, that would be held against you some time. What I choose to do, is to quote Abraham Lincoln- 'they are just what we would be under similar circumstances". I choose to do this. You can do this too. Don't pass judgements. 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged"- Matthew 7:1. Follow this, and you shall live peacefully.

#Peaces

-Jatin Jawale

::MATTERING::

In sooth, we all wanna matter. We all wanna be important in some or the other way! In childhood, we found importance in becoming the class-monitor or something. In adolescence, our way of mattering changes- we wanna matter to our friends, be the soul of our peer-group, be the one everyone likes talking to and all. And then again, as the years go by, we look forward to becoming important to the world by doing something great and praiseworthy. We wish to be rich and famous. At different ages and stages of life, we wanna be important- we wanna matter.

But is mattering really that necessary? Many people would say it is, many would say it isn't. Even though desires devastate, the only desire we cannot give up is that of mattering. And in the process of making that desire come true, we take steps. Sometimes the desires come true. Sometimes the steps don't work, but we still end up mattering in some or the other way.... (All Hail Fate!)

Take the case of Captain America. In spite of being skinny and physically weak, he (Steve Rogers) wanted to be important to his country by fighting the WW2. He didn't get enrolled initially, but because of his bravery and desire to serve his country, Abraham Erskine decides to carry out the scientific experiment on him, making him a super-soldier with extraordinary abilities, eventually making him a superhero, rather than a soldier. He ended up mattering more than he wanted to.
There could be many such examples. There could be many people who ended up mattering in a different way than they wanted to.

In spite of all this, I believe that mattering to the world isn't really the only way to be important. Even if we matter to our friends and family, its more than enough, because our family and friends are more or less our entire world. An adage says 'something is better than nothing'. And if you feel you don't matter in either way, you are wrong; because you do!

I quote John Green (yet again) "And so we all matter-maybe less than a lot, but always more than none." And this is damn true.

#Peaces

-Jatin Jawale

::EUREKA::

Okay, so science has eaten up my mind. The reason I realised this is that a few days back, when I put a few ice-cubes in my glass full of Pepsi, some of the soft-drink fell down from the glass and no sooner did that happen than I thought of Archimedes. Archimedes, the Greek philosopher who had discovered that volume could be measured by water displacement when he sat down in a bathtub full of water. Upon making this discovery, Archimedes is said to have shouted “Eureka!” and then he ran naked through the streets, echoing the word. Well, this thought just gave birth to the theme of this blog- Eureka Moments.

Well, 'eureka' is a transliteration of a word in Greek which literally means 'I have found it' and is generally used in order to celebrate a discovery or invention. Archimedes shouted 'eureka' because he had made that discovery. Well, I guess I'm just gonna play around with the meaning and make it 'Eureka=Amazing' (Dictionaries and Greeks- Please forgive me).

If given a thought, we actually encounter numerous Eureka Moments (EMs); there are many amazing moments in our lives which we don't even take under consideration due to their less-significance. But no incident, however insignificant should be neglected because these incidents might change our lives, and after some time, we shall even look back at those incidents, and with a smile on our faces say 'Eureka!' with either the new meaning I gave or its literal meaning. How significant was the incident of water coming out of a bathtub? If we were in Archimedes' place, we would've neglected it. But he being a genius, gave that insignificant-seeming incident a thought, and it became a major discovery. Though our EMs wouldn't bring a revolution in science such as Archimedes' did, they would at least help us look at our life in a positive way.

This happens to me frequently- I keep looking back and discover the buried EMs, and they always bring a smile on my face, because I realise that life hasn't been so bad yet! Even you should try it. Look into the past (if u can do it without being haunted by it) and seek those EMs. You will definitely find some, and they might even make you happy. Past doesn't always hurt you if you look at it positively. 

And not only in the past, seek for them even in the present. Give certain incidents a thought, and trust me, you shall find at least one moment which will make you say 'Eureka!'

#Peaces

-Jatin Jawale.

(P.S: sorry again, dictionaries and Greeks :P)

::STILL ALIVE::

This blog isn't actually like the other ones. The previous ones were just expansions of my ideas. This time I planed to get a bit motivational and I've managed to compose my thoughts in a rhyme! Hope you like it :)

So it goes:

"I Am Still Alive"

I can still stand up on my feet,
I can still walk with my head held high,
In spite of all my devastated dreams,
I know, that I'm still alive.

Hope is all I have with me,
And behind the ruins of my heart hides my pride,
And with every step that I move ahead,
The more I believe, that I'm still alive

No matter what hurdle comes ahead of me,
No matter how malign deed Fate has for my life,
I shall face it bravely and I shall not be hopeless
because it's not the end; I'm still alive

No matter how fast the minute travels
No matter how swiftly the hours drive
Because with every passing moment I believe
That I am, and will be alive.


Conclusion: If you feel like you are in pieces; if you feel like a loser; if u feel that you are worthless and 
not fit enough to occupy this space on earth, don't forget one thing- this is not the end. All these thoughts are transient, my friends. Failure is momentary. Even if u fail, do not worry; there is no reason to be hopeless! Let the ray of wisdom enter through the cracks in your broken conscience. From this wisdom, courage shall emanate, and you shall be brave enough to face anything that comes ahead of you. You will become a better person thereafter. 
The most important thing is to believe in yourself; to believe that you can win; to believe that you are the most gallant warrior. We are the results of our thoughts and so, our thoughts reflect us. We become what our thoughts make us. Hence, believe that you are the best!
Stay strong; be proud of who you are.

#Peaces

- Jatin Jawale

::CARING::

A boy, as usual, picked up his phone, hoping to receive millions of notifications on Whatsapp. But Fate hated to work that way, and as usual, he had no notifications (except for messages sent on the family's group, which doesn't really count). He surfed through is contact list and looked at people's statuses- which included birthday wishes, emo quotes, exclamations over their favourite football team's victory, etc. But one particularly caught his attention. Ironically enough, it was a mere dot. He understood that that friend of his was in a bad mood, and he knew that because he often did the same thing when he got depressed. (How funny- a mere dot is the tool people use to express their emotion when they are feeling a mixture of so many things!) So, he asked that friend about it. "Nothing...chuck" was the reply. He insisted, but it was of no use. Though they were't that close, that dot bothered him more than words would.   
The same thing happened a few days later, and he asked about it again. The reply was synonymous. He wanted to know what was wrong, just so that he could help out! 
Another day, the same thing happened but this time, he got very curious, and the depressed one got very furious. "Stop troubling me, man! Leave me alone! No one cares for me!"
After he read this, the boy started wondering, "What have I been trying to do?" Just think how he must have felt. How immensely wrong we are when we say 'Nobody cares'...some people DO genuinely care. When we say 'nobody' does, we probably mean that the person we expect to care for us doesn't. (Expectation- one thing that ruins everything.)

All over the social media, we can see quotes that tell us not to care about others; that we must give up caring just so that we don't have to get involved in their problems and thus, remain happy. And this thought has taken over the minds of millions. Someone is depressed, most people don't care; someone fought with their bae, they don't care; someone's relative dies, they do express fake sympathy, but they don't care. Though this trick works on the ones we aren't close enough to, we tend to deny this when it comes to our close ones. We might get emotionally constipated if we don't give too much of 'shit' and so, we flush all the shit on them. We over-care for them.

Even though great personalities agree on 'not giving a F-TripleAsterisk' thing, and they are freakin right about it, some people misunderstand that. The Great probably meant not to care about things that bother you too much- about things that demotivate you or stuff like that. They probably meant not to give a damn about things that turn you sullen, like failure or something. I don't think they meant 'Don't give a damn about any freaking thing!' Nowadays, I've heard people give 'I don't care' as a reply to many things. 

Humans are gregarious, we need people in our lives... and if we dont care for them, how can we think that they will remain with us? Not giving a damn about stupid, puny things is good; but not giving a damn about ANYTHING is bad, and practically impossible.

Caring is a mere act of kindness, and which religion doesn't support kindness? (unless you consider SWAG as a religion). Care for people...unless it doesn't cause you any harm. Care for people, and you will be looked after by them when needed.  

Give it a thought! 

#Peaces

- Jatin Jawale

::CHANGES::

An old adage says, "Change is the only constant". True, ain't it? Seasons change more or less monthly, weather changes daily, wind changes its direction regularly, but people change more frequently, and that too in a way we are uncomfortable with... Do you think this way?

At times, we feel that a friend of ours, or perhaps any person, is getting away from us, and when we don't have a logical reason for this, we say that he/she has started changing even when we aren't sure that they have! That is the only alibi. I know most of us feel this way, but it is not necessary that it is really what we think it is. We are bounded by the walls in our mind, which don't enable us to look beyond. And perhaps, we don't even want to look beyond, because we believe ourselves to be right all the time, don't we? We convince ourselves that we are smart enough to notice the signs and jump to crooked conclusions. We become over-confident, omniscient judges.
The point is, we aren't ALWAYS right; and who knows? Maybe we are right while judging such a situation....but there will always be that 'maybe'. We might be 99% correct, but there is always that 1% to prove us wrong. And we need to be 100% sure....

Suppose we are 100% sure about the change.... So what? We don't have the right to stop them from changing, do we? It is their life! They can do any F-triple asterisk-ing thing they want to! Changes WILL occur. We have to accept the truth. We can either adjust ourselves according to that change, or just be ourselves and move on...its our choice. The latter would be better, I guess. Because if we 'adjust', we merely change ourself, just like the person whom we accuse to have changed and in that case, we have no right to judge them, because we ourselves are doing the same thing. But it also depends on the value of the person in our life. If they are very precious, you would feel that the first remedy is better. But if WE were valuable to them, they would do something about the change...but that is when we TELL them about it, instead of just making mental conclusions. What do you think?

We are hurt the most when the people we value the most goes through a change. We want them to be the same throughout. But this can't be possible. You remember hurricanes, right? Hurricanes will change things. The way the person changes, even you will change someday. The adage will never go wrong! (now, the next line will sound really stupid, but who cares??) Everything and everyone that matters is matter, and matter is nothing but energy (Einstein said so), and energy changes its form and manifestations. That is the law of nature; we cannot do anything about it. (Laugh at this if u want to! :P)

But you know what the awesome thing is? Changes are always for the ultimate good! ALWAYS! We might be hurt at some point, but ultimately, we will be happy. That 'ultimately' might be years later, but it WILL come someday. We just need to be hopeful.. Trust me with this. Don't let that thin string of hope break. If our friend has changed, obviously we would be hurt and perhaps they would even go away from our lives in a while. But that place would be filled by someone more worthy of that place, who will stay with you for a longer time. Isn't that a good thing?

Give it a thought!

#Peaces

- Jatin Jawale

::HOPE::

At times, we end up clinging to a thin string called hope, which helps us from falling off the cliff of desires.... Sometimes we think the string is too weak to hold us, and it will break after a while; but that is not true! That string is so strong that you can return back safely! 
Such is the strength of hope...it can keep you from falling down.

The story of Pandora's Box gives such a strong message to us! In a nutshell- Pandora was Zues' daughter and he presented her with a box for her wedding, but told her not to open it under any condition. But curiosity proved to be more powerful than obedience, and she opened the box eventually, and as soon as she did, all the vices came out of it and engulfed the world. She tried to close it, but it was too late (Zeus did that because he wanted to seek a revenge from Pandora's husband, who was a brother to Prometheus- The one to give fire to humans. Pandora wasn't even his real daughter; she was created for the sole purpose of seeking his revenge). When her husband came back home, she told him what happened and opened the box again. The box seemed empty, but it wasn't. In a little while, a tiny spirit came out of the box. This was the spirit of Hope.... (For the proper story of Pandora's Box, click here!) This story tells us that despite all the bad, there is always hope. Nothing can ever be irreparably wrong. There is no need to be hopeless!

Hopes and expectations are not the same thing. When we expect something, we go all out to fulfil it at times. But when we hope for something, we leave everything in the hands of fate. Expectations often leave us unsatisfied and depressed when they aren't fulfilled; but hope is an optimistic state! When you hope for something, you are well prepared for the consequences.
Simple example- When we gift something to someone, a mind full of expectations would probably be like, "I know he/she is going to like the gift! I think he/she is going to be in tears and would never forget this gift ever! This is probably the best he/she is going to get!" But a hopeful mind would be like "I hope he/she likes the gift. Even if others' gift are better, I don't mind! At least my gift would matter, maybe less than the rest, but definitely more than none!"
The difference is kind of clear.

According to me, there is nothing like 'False Hope'. What exactly does 'False hope' mean? Meaninglessly hoping for something that is never going to happen in reality? Isn't that mere expectation? False hope is the string which breaks; we fall down when it does break and we are broken, which is exactly like what happens when we cling to expectations. 

False Hope is just expectation; because addition of the word 'FALSE' before Hope, makes hope a pessimistic state; and Hope is MEANT to be a positive state of mind. If we are broken when our hope fails, we weren't hoping at all...we were expecting.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in hoping for something. But the difference between hoping and expecting should be clear. Hoping won't let you down, expectation probably will.... Give it a thought :)

#Peaces

- Jatin Jawale

Do post a comment below :)

::CHARIOTEERS::

Living in this world is like fighting a war; the world is the battleground itself. The chariot is your life and u ride on it gallantly! But the person who guides this chariot of yours, taking it through the correct paths, avoiding any damage to it, is the charioteer.

I hope the above lines made a tinge of sense :P Anyway, I will elaborate the point further.....

These 'charioteers' are the ones who guide you in your life. They are the ones who are there for you when you need support or guidance. They are your true well-wishers and they always want the best for you, so that you score well in this exam called life! :)

These charioteers make your chariot move ahead. Probably, they will guide this chariot of yours till your war ends.....

These are the ones you go to when you are stuck due to some sort of confusion. You share everything with them- especially your problems. When you are despondent, they make you smile :) And when you are ebullient, they are the ones you want to be there with you so that you can share your happiness :) More or less, they are both, the cause of your happiness and the ones you want to share that happiness with! They help you remain halcyon....

Relating this concept to the previous blog, Hurricanes and Charioteers are different. The former change you completely, while the latter help you move ahead in life by helping you in making decisions. Your hurricane could be your charioteer as well, though :)

We all have our charioteers. They could be our parents, relatives or even our friends! We consult them frequently! As our life goes on, they help us whenever we need them!

Now, its not really necessary that we would have the same charioteer throughout our life! This is because, we don't know when 'The Commander' of our war changes our charioteer for some or the other reason! And we should not forget, even though that person is our charioteer in our war, he has his own war that he has to fight. In such a situation, we must never back off from becoming their charioteer. No matter how bad a charioteer we would be; it's our duty at least to try.

Point to be noted: it's not necessary that we have to take their opinion. You are the one riding the chariot and fighting the war; you have command over your chariot and you can control where you want the chariot to go! i don't mean to say that our charioteer would tread the wrong path... I just mean that if anything wrong happens, if the chariot gets damaged, you are responsible for it, because it wasn't necessary to go through that path! You are responsible for your own chariot; the charioteer just suggests, its you who assents.

#Peaces

-Jatin Jawale

::EXPECTATIONS::

"The world is not a wish granting factory"- John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

Well, I would better like to re-frame the above quote as "The world is not an expectation-fulfilling factory". Wishes can be granted; expectations, most of the time, aren't fulfilled. 

What do we mean by 'expectation'? According to me, it is nothing but a wish that is never conveyed to anyone, or to the person we 'expect' to grant it. It is a wish that is born in our mind and never comes out of it. And because the person is unaware of our 'wish', he can do nothing about it! He doesn't know what we want! In such a situation, the expectation is bound to fail. We are left unsatisfied; and when we are unsatisfied, there is an inception of a revolt within us. We start suffering because of something that took birth in our own mind. The people who are aware of the teachings of Lord Buddha have been introduced to this very thought. But people still keep expecting things from others....

In order to calm ourselves, we start thinking about our suffering and seek a remedy; and that remedy is always a decision. But one question: can a mind, that is indulged in a revolt, take correct and wise decisions? I don't think so. Those decisions may sound satisfactory and correct for some time, but in the long run, they are most likely to cause us more harm- they will make us suffer even more.

Solution? The solution is simple- we must stop expecting things. That way, we will never be hurt. No one can ever overpower us. 
Another solution is to convert your 'expectation' into a 'wish'. I mean, if u have expectations from a friend, tell the person what you expect from him/her. If they really care, they will make efforts to grant the 'wish'. If not, you are with 'associates'...not 'friends'

#Peaces

- Jatin Jawale