Growing up can be lots of fun

Has it ever happened to you that the things that you thought you would never do, think, understand is exactly what you are doing now and worse, be fairly comfortable about it? It's all part of growing up or getting matured but sometimes I get terrified that I might end up being a person I once abhorred!

As an enthusiastic post teen, I believed work as worship. I would feel guilty if there was not much work on my plate or if someone else was doing much difficult or creative work. I would feel I need to earn my money and less work did not fit my belief. Yes, I was young and stupid. Not that I am old and wiser but now, I don't mind free time accompanied by money paid for having it.

There are so many thoughts, ideas that I used to think occurs to others, only to realize that I am not left out as well. But on further thinking, only thing I can conclude is it’s a human nature and well, life happens to anyone.

Let’s just not even talk about food. All my childhood tantrums of eating only a selective few has taken a reverse turn, now that I eat anything vegetarian. Apart from surprising few who know me since I was a kid, I sometimes surprise myself seeing what I have in my food plate.

Though I respect the genuine concerns that my previous generation has for us and the future of the planet, I don’t seem to be much bothered about it. There are some global issues for which all of us have to contribute but otherwise, things which were considered taboo before are not looked upon the same way anymore. The society in general is becoming more generous and liberal. This of course, impacts human mind and the way it works. The realization that life is not black and white but shades of grey is more profound now.

As someone said, “Life is not what you think it is but what you make out of it.”

Edit: I changed the title as the previous one "Becoming someone you once disliked" was too strong. I don't think we can become someone else whom we abhorred but we start understanding life in a broader spectrum.

Modern Marvels

Technology never fails to amaze me. Of all the modern marvels that have come out, I like GPS the best. It has helped me regain my independence all over again. I don't need to prepare myself to know direction to the destination neither I need to worry about missing turns or getting lost. The best part is there are no arguments on taking wrong turns. Whether the route taken is right or wrong is never discussed. In fact, the poor thing keeps recalculating to find the nearest way to reach the destination. I recently learnt another new feature by which we can save the location where the car is parked in the mall and roam about freely. When we plan to return back, it would more than willingly help us reach the car, safe and sound.

iPhone is the next. I understand this idea has been floating around for sometime but we have to give credit to Apple for making it available to the mass. Now, all we have to remember is to carry this gadget, for everything else, there is iPhone. The iWear to give a display equivalent to theatre video screen is phenomenal. With iPod already out, I knew something for the video would just be around the corner.

All these are bringing realization to a chapter of English that I read in class 8. I don't recall the fiction completely but it was about a house where all the electronic gadgets spoke to each other and how they tried best to save themselves and the house on the doom's day but no luck.

I am equally marveled by Microsoft Surface. The touch technology does surface out a new way of learning, sharing information. This definitely makes a tremendous impact on the consumer market. Few years ago, in a class presentation on what future beholds us, we had come up with the way online shopping would be evolved. We imagined how we could compare products online. In case of dresses, we can actually have a profile looking similar to us and checkout how the dress looks on that. We also proposed of comparing perfumes online. I am not sure if there is any olfactory plug-ins available. If there are none, there must be something evolving somewhere and it’s just a matter of time when it surfaces out.

Kindle can be any book lover's dream come true. Having accessible to approx 130,000 books and publications in an 8 X 6 palm device is astounding. Somehow, I have never felt reading in an electronic device as gratifying as shuffling the pages of a book.

As Einstein had once said: “It is appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity”

This post was due long time back but could never see the day of light till today.

To choose or not to choose

Can you believe being overwhelmed by the amount of choices? After all, have we not always looked for more opportunities and choices? Being bombarded with choices may feel good but the frustration that might result is almost similar to the one we experience when we have no choice at all. The simile is choosing between drought and flood.

If you feel like drinking a hot tea to get rejuvenated, you would be exhausted by just choosing an appropriate one. Apart from the regular black, brown, green , red spanning the entire rainbow spectrum, we now have fruit flavored tea, that too with choice or organic or not.

Forget the tea, maybe a soda would be more refreshing on a warm day in summer. Now you are caught up in choosing between a regular coke/pepsi, orange /grape fanta, vanilla flavored, cherry flavored, herbs flavored and ofcourse calories ranging from zero to the celestial distance between earth and moon. I wonder why have they not come up with chocolate flavored coke?

Speaking of chocolates, that’s once thing I won't complain with the varieties we have. I want to tryout an ice-cream, which is supposed to be chocolate lover's paradise - "Death by chocolate” but first, I have to figure out where it is available. Checkout the link for unusual chocolate flavored items.

I don’t understand why fruits are getting added everywhere. All ingredients for various items ultimately come from Mother Nature but adding fruit in soda, tea, coffee and now soap, mouth wash, toothpaste is just getting too much. Some of the hand lotions smell so good, you are tempted not to taste it else you would end up devouring your own hand.

How deep is your sleep?

There is nothing as rejuvenating as a good night's sleep, which leaves us cheerful and charged up. The change is lifestyle does have a huge impact on sleep patterns. As a kid, I was used to hearing sermons of getting up early. Now it’s the other way around. Folks are asking me to sleep more. If you ask me, just let a person sleep. The days (s)he is sleeping half a day is well compensated by the days when sleep time equals the flight time from London to Paris.

One summer day, my mom had gone out for running errands. The sun was nice and warm and our playing made us sleepy. I and my brother decided to take turns to sleep so that one of us could still be awake to let my mom in. He took the first turn. Seeing him nice and snug in the bed, I couldn’t resist closing my eyes. We were so comfortably dozing that we did not hear either the doorbell or my mom banging the door for an hour or so. Finally, we did wake up before my mom panicked and was about to call the police.

The first time I did a night out in my college, I was thrilled. It's besides the point that I slept the whole day next day. Once when we became confirmed night owls finishing off assignments and projects late at nights and a morning walk seemed to be a distant nirvana, I and my friend actually stayed awake the whole night to see how life is at 5:00 am in the morning!

If I had exams or had to catch a train/bus for a vacation, I could get up really early. I knew the reason. We had an alarm clock which could wake up the whole neighborhood and sounded really bad. Yes, I know an alarm clock with nice wake up call tune might just put one back to deep sleep. I used to dislike hearing it so much that I always used to wake up before it could buzz.

Most of the distinguished personalities have a track sleep record of sleeping 4 or 5 hours a day. In my childhood, I had heard enough of these people how they got up in the morning to be ahead of the world and accomplished things even when the world was sleeping. But I think I still had a valid point of sleeping such long hours in my school days. You see, I was trying to buffer the sleep that I might be losing in years to come.

All play and no work

Contrary to the popular phrase "All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy", the reverse is equally true. Work culture has changed 180 degrees in the last half of the century. From working in places walking distance from home to working in a place half the globe across. With the whole world becoming one global village, the opportunities are boundless. Of course, everything comes with a pinch of salt.

The kind of work we do, the people we interact with and also the times when we accomplish it has completely changed. I remember as a kid, I used to be off from school only on a Sunday. In fact, I loved to wear the white shirt and skirt uniform to school on Saturdays. Later, few years down the lane, we were off on 2nd and 4th Saturday. But now, many schools are corporations adopt a 5 week schedule. In fact, now there are rumors of 4 week schedule!

On one hand, there are people with 3-4 hour commute daily and in the same space are people who work from home many times a week. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on one's personality and lifestyle. I knew a nurse who used to work three 12-hour nights and used to have a 4 day weekend every week. And I have friends who end up working till 2am everyday.

There was a recent survey in some media asking if we would prefer a 4 day week schedule to 5 day. Though all of us would love to work less, I think we still yearn to work, just so that we can enjoy our leisure time. I feel the same excitement on a Friday which I did on Saturday, years back, realizing that weekend is around the corner, though the length of weekend has changed. What would you prefer for your work schedule?