Naughty, Nice or something in between?

As this year comes to a grinding halt, we are all being bombarded with messages of holiday spirits, wishes for the holidays and of course, 70 to 80% off sale prices. And then there is the all intricate fabric of  holiday traditions, stories and gifting etiquette that weaves into our daily life whether we choose it or not.

I am guessing most of you are either in the process or finishing up the year end review process. The laborious but necessary chore of recapping what you did, how well you did it and promises of how you will do it better next time around. During the holiday season this process supplants itself everywhere. Kids are pondering over what they did to evaluate their entry into the nice or naughty list, adults going over the same and making resolutions as if they are promising themselves that they will do a better job next time around. And then there are the top 10 lists that weeds out all other non performers  in each of the gazillion categories that the human race can be categorized to.

So how did you fare this year? What rating would you give yourself? Give it some thought. Were you nice, naughty or something in between? The ratings are completely relative, so you have the liberty of making yourself the judge. If you played by the rules, your needs and wants are all in the nice category. If you were a little adventurous, maybe you strayed a little into the naughty territory. But then, kid or adult, all of us have a secret Santa. Be it an elderly obese man dressed in a red suit or an ultimate being with universal authority to judge. For others who do not believe in supreme beings, they let the judging be done by fellow human beings.  

As for me,  I sit on my couch slowly morphing myself into the shape of Santa Clause year after year. One thing I promise to myself is that I will not make a nice or naughty list. My choices are my choices and they may fall into the nice bucket for some and naughty bucket for others.  Conclusion - there is no point in being judged by anyone else who is not in your exact situation that made you do stuff falling in each category.

So let us toast to a happy new year, wishing we stray in between the nice and naughty categories, never even straying into the evil category. We have many troubles in the world and adding more evil into it would be like adding salt to sea water. Wish for something nice, want for something naughty and maybe Santa will grace you with some of both. Wish you a nice nice holiday season and a naughty new year!

Milestone Check

Milestones are important for various reasons. Of course, it tells you how far your destination is, but I am more interested in knowing how far I have traveled.  A reflection on the path so far, a guess on how it will be from now on - all follows.

I have not kept my support and admiration for Obama a secret. So it was not surprising when someone asked me about how my support for Obama was doing, a year before the elections. Sure, I am disappointed that all my assumptions about him did not bear fruit, but he cannot be held accountable for the little garden I had built in my head for a more peaceful, tolerant world.

• Passed healthcare reform even with obstruction from the blue "dog(s)" democrats.
• Got Osama in the head while making fun of opposition leaders at the White House press corps dinner event.
• Repealed "Don't ask, Don't tell".
• Credit Card reform, Student Loan reform enacted.
• Got Awlaki without having a soldier step on Libyan land.
• Initiated withdrawal from Iraq.

And many other things that moves mankind forward - even though inch by inch.

So "How is the hope and change stuff working for you"  you ask?

Very well, thank you.

Now, on to the reelection  campaign of 2012.

Mediocrity - underrated?

The other day a friend of mine asked me - "When does a man know that the most he achieves in life will be mediocrity? Late 40s? Late 50s?" I thought that was a very thought provoking question. He asked it with a very muted tone sounding as if mediocrity was a sign that someone has failed in life.

I like to think otherwise. Excluding the lazy bunch who waste their talents and find pleasure in couch camping, I would say the majority of us are termed "mediocre". But is that bad? Isn't mediocrity way underrated? Yes, life is indeed a race - and considering the starting point, we have come far. Now, if the finishing point is not out of the ordinary, that does not mean we have not run a good race. All of us are born with tools to mould life. Some of us with power tools and others with just a chisel and hammer. I say we do best with the tools we have and what we build out of it is ours to own. There is only room for so many greats in this world. Besides, we are never mediocre for people who care about us. Striving for greatness is perfectly fine, but make sure that achieving greatness is not the only way you will ever be satisfied in life.

Now you may be thinking - "You will never make money as a motivational speaker". I agree. Thankfully, I did not choose that profession in life and the world is a better place to be in precisely due to that decision of mine. However, I am mediocre in most of the stuff I do, but I do give it my best shot.

Be great at achieving greatness, but if mediocrity is what you get, never let the label take away the fun of  appreciating how far in life you have travelled to reach it.

Until next time - when I meet with you at the crossroads of another mediocre article on this mediocre blog.

image courtesy: http://www.justynsmith.com/2011/03/the-mediocre-kidmin-leader-part-2/

Life, Interrupted.

"Yeah, its all over now", my brother said with a deep sigh. "He looked just as handsome as he did before all of this happened". My heart felt heavier and my eyes teared up as I looked out the window hoping to find deeper answers to life's more complex questions.
***********
Around nine months ago, I was woken up by a phone call very early in the morning. It was the weekend, so I let it ring and continued my slumber until I got my lazy butt out of bed. It was after doing my morning chores that I decided to check who had called - it was my wife's cousin. The voice mail he left threw me right out of my comfort zone. He had been having headaches, so the doctor suggested an MRI and they had discovered a tumor in his brain. I felt like slapping myself for not taking his call and letting it go to voice mail. I desperately tried to call him back, but did not get any answer. It was later on that I knew he had been hospitalized and they had started further investigations into his condition.

Fast forward a couple of weeks - I traveled to Chicago to be by his side and also receive his parents who were on their way from India. It was 3 days packed with emotions - of him, his sister and his parents. There was a mix of anxiety, despair and hope for a better future - Medical science has made so many advances - we can clone entire organs, so a tumor in the brain could not be much of a puzzle for the brightest of doctors right?

Except, it was. They ruled out surgery as it was too complex and started chemo, radiation and rehabilitation. I painfully watched as his dad helped him regain his strength to walk, assist him to the bathroom and help him with other things otherwise considered mundane in daily life. For his dad, it was as if life had progressed in reverse, when his son was a little boy, and he was holding his hands to help him get his balance.

As time passed he fought back with his strong will power and zest for living, but then all of that suffered huge blows as hope dwindled and more doctors said that there was nothing more they could do. He never complained about how life was unfair and that he was given the short end of a stick. The bounce in his talk was still there, though occasionally he would delve into long streaks of silence. He joked about the hair he had lost because of the chemo and of the weight he had put on because of all the steroids.

After putting up a brave fight, the third week of March was destined to be his last on this planet. The last few days were particularly tough - for him and everyone close to him and then he decided he had enough. The tumor eventually outgrew his willpower and took over control. I guess some dark clouds do not have a silver lining after all.
******
After that phone call from my brother after his funeral, I called and spoke to his dad the next day. It hurt deeply, and though the chatty person that I am, I was at a loss for words in all languages I knew. I told him what I felt - all he could do was to look after himself and hos wife as his son would have done and that live life as happily as he would have wanted you to. In a way, the best homage to a bright young lad.

The loss of a child is more scarring in many ways compared to the loss of parents or close relatives. It hurts you until your last breath. Many a lesson can be learned from all of this - the most important one being - never  lose the joy of living life amidst complaints about all the nitty grtty details.

Jiby was 24 at the time of his funeral. He was just beginning to enjoy life in its prime - precisely why he fought so hard against what eventually took his life at a young age. May his soul rest his peace and may his memories light up moments of people he touched.

Sleep well my friend, for you shall be forever young.

Picture courtesy - http://usagamezone.blogspot.com

The Robots have taken over!

A belated Happy New year to all. To those of you who are still hanging on to their New Year resolutions, good job and kudos for being persistent. For the rest of us, there is always going to be another New Year!

The New Year has brought in a lot of comments on my blog post and in case you are wondering why its not showing up after the posts, it is because they are all written by spam robots. I am happy that machines appreciate my thoughts and have a weird sense of humor, but its not the kind of messages I would like in my inbox. With the likes of Facebook and Twitter, you can never be too alone, even if you wanted to.

So hello again to all the readers who are still subscribed to my feed and let me tell you that it was never my intention to abandon this space or your curiosity in knowing my brain content. Everything you see in the blog title was still going on, I just could not muster up enough time and resources to publish it. When I reviewed this space last week, it gave me the feeling of going to school when it is closed - you see the classrooms and are reminded of all the heated discussions, fun and activity that once was - and you crave for having it back.

So here is my first step in satisfying that craving. When you have some time to spare, drop in a line, scribble 'hi' and I shall be obliged and happy.

And to the robots reading this - No, I am not interested in getting medicines from Canada.Nor am I interested in seeing you naked on your webcam. Most certainly, I am not interested in enlarging the size of my privates.So quit stalking me.

image courtesy - http://truescifi.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/robot-police/