Judgmental opinions

I didn't really believe this photo would have been here in this post yesterday I wasn't at all confident early morning at 5 am and I wasn't confident enough for the last one week or more Paulo Coelho had written somewhere, "Life has a way of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all, or by having everything happen at once!" And my life was not treating me well, so I thought; things were not going the direction the way I planned or wanted to, both at work or otherwise On the work front, I had a tense fortnight with several things happening all at once and inspite of efforts weren't going well As for the marathon, I had planned practicing throughout of October and November, and to my dismay, the months flew past To top it all, I realised I had put back on all the weight lost earlier with me tippling the scale at a mind blowing 82 kg! And carrying all that 82 kg of me over 21 km on the trot was benumbing Meenal unfortunately had a fractu...

Today I am writing about a very common expression that we use, "you are entitled to your own opinion" This statement is usually a conversation ender; end a conversation that is threatening to become an argument Most conversations end with that expression - this is my opinion, you are entitled to your own opinion The dictionary meaning of the word "opinion" is a view or a judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. When do we ask others for their opinion? When we don't need it! When someone asks me for my opinion, it is actually to understand my character more than anything else The decision is already taken and someone wants to judge what my reaction will be when they inform me of the decision So to know that, they ask my opinion Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is perspective, not the truth. This statement is credited to Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emporer known for his Stoic philosophy We all have ou...

Sometimes in life we have events that somehow refuse to be covered in the blanket of time Events eventually get obliterated in time but some of them cling on like shreds to the thorns of our memories And these shreds haunt us for days or sometimes flutter like flags in the wind years later Many are just in passing but a few loiter in our mind unable to decide whether to trouble us or just invoke pleasant memories Nearly ten years at this post had made me lose my sense of time and so when I received my transfer orders a few days ago they pumped the wind out of me I did not expect any transfer after my intense try two years ago resulted in failure and had made me believe that no one wants to be posted here And today I had this strange feeling of watching a few tiny strings fluttering at the back of my mind They felt like bitter sweet memories of the good times and the not so good times but somehow couldn't decide whether they were indicative of being worthy of retention The surreal f...

 I have moved into my new office in Panaji Its nice My room is rectangular but appears square One wall has a window all along its width and I can see the trees outside if I sit in my chair The table was touching the wall but I moved it away from the wall because I wanted to keep a book rack there There's a nice two seat sofa with a teepoy on one side left side of the door Its probably for me to sit when I am having my lunch but I sit at my table because I want to see the leaves on the trees rustle while I am eating If I lean out the window on the right, I can see the Joggers park With some effort I can see the meditation hut but I can't see who is inside it because the bushes hide the view On the left, I can see the road leading towards the quarters of the movers and shakers of Altinho or maybe Goa There's a building across the road but it is hidden by the trees which is a nice thing The room is clean and nice and waiting for me to mess and throw my things around The chair ...

 Let me begin today's very serious sermon with a quote from one of Ayn Rand's books There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and the air of the streets. Fear walks through the city, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare speak. Elections are round the corner and elections is like a business; it flourishes when there is fear in the air In one of my posts earlier, I had told how our purchases and expenses are related to fear How news and advertising generate fear and anxiety to get us to spend our money in buying The trend in the local news and social media is slowly building up towards creating a new type of fear It is the fear that is gift wrapped in the form of insecurity Insecurity is a very ugly thing; it makes you hate people you don't even know Insecurity is loud It is the fear of losing our identity; and it is being drummed out loudly and off the rooftops that we are going to lose our Goan-ness. And it will be growing louder unt...

 All of you must have seen the movie "Life of Pi" Much before the movie came to be made, I had laid my hands on the book Meenal was in Pune pursuing her PhD and I had purchased the book on one of my trips to Pune The book is a good read with one whole chapter describing the zoo that Pi's father owned That chapter justifies the need of a zoo and I was posted in charge of Bondla zoo at the time and I fully agreed with the writer Zoos are fascinating places I lived in Bondla in one of the staff quarters at the time which was close to the zoo The best time of the day was after closing time and the staff would wrap up the day's work with a report on the health of each animal I would then sit and watch the animals after the staff left and the night watchmen would report for duty My day would also start early morning with a round of each enclosure checking up on the things that need to be done and I would have my list ready before the staff reported for work The animals fasc...