These are a few lines from one of favorite poems, A Psalm Of Life , by H.W. Longfellow.

In the above lines, Heart of a young man tells the psalmist that world is like a big battlefield, and here in this bivouac ( tent ) of life,  instead of being like the sheep who blindly follows each other,stand out like a hero and find out solutions to all your problems yourself.

Whenever I come across these lines, I get inspired in an unknown way. No doubt, this poem is an epic work of Longfellow and the entire poem seems magnificent to me.

Above mentioned were my favorite lines.. Look out for the ones that inspire you the most… Here, is the poem…

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real !   Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o’erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

” No one is gonna play with water this holi ” I ordered my sister. In return she said ” Why not? Even you played with water as a child”  To which I replied ” Yeah! That is right, but I did so because at that age I was not aware of how I was wasting water by playing holi. ” She quickly claimed to be ‘ not-so-grown-up’ to understand that now. And after that whenever i tried to convince her she had different counter arguments making me understand that no matter how hard i try they wont refrain from using water.

I have have been learning since childhood that “India is a land of festivals and Indians celebrate each and every festival together with unity.” And tomorrow Indians are proudly gonna celebrate ‘Holi’. Before I put forward my views I would like to talk about what is this festival all about..

HOLI- It is celebrated by Hindus on the last full moon day of the lunar month phalguna which usually falls in the later days of February or March.  The main day, known as dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan or choti holi.

A bonfire lit at choti holi.

The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a resolute devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.

The most celebrated Holi is that of the Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura,Vrindavan, Nandgaon, and Barsana. In Mathura and Vrindavan, the celebration lasts for 16 days in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna.

A scene depicting Radha and Krishna playing holi.

Traditionally, the coloured powder was extracted from ayurvedic sources like neem, kumkum, haldi, bilva and others of the kind. For coloured water, flowers of Palash were boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow coloured water which had medicinal properties.

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flowers of palash.

Unfortunately, the use of herbal Colours had been replaced by synthetic dyes being used now-a-days for playing holi. These colours are not only the cause of various diseases but also have a great impact on environment. “Synthetic colours pollute water.”

Holi, a day when people unnecessarily waste gallons of water ( by throwing at each other ) and then pollute the rest cleaning themselves. If for a while we keep aside all other aspects and consider only the water issue, we come to know that it is indeed a big threat in itself.

I, as a child, played holi with all my friends in my neighbourhood and today when I look down the memory lane I feel disappointed that at that time there was no one who taught me to adopt alternative methods of celebrating the festival of colours and to try not to harm the mother earth. But today, When I am mature enough to understand I feel sad for those who don’t. Leave aside them who don’t understand but what about those who know but are ignorant?

As I said in the beginning that I tried to persuade my sister to play holi with dry powder but I could not convince her appropriately. In fact, even my parents asked me to stop ‘interfering’ and its ok if children go out and enjoy themselves. Backed by support from my mother and because of obstinate attitude of my sister, today she and her friends wasted a whole lot of water. *sigh!*

I really wish people understand their responsibilities towards environment and start taking initiative. I wish people stop thinking that Why should i stop when others are doing the same?

Just like one light ray can turn out darkness one mild effort can make a difference.

15 Apple’s stock fell only 25% last week.

14 Bill Gates’s birthday now a paid holiday for Apple employees.

13 Default Mac startup sound changed to “Taps.”

12 Wall Street brokers have stopped using Apple stock certificates as toilet paper.

11 Apple’s new slogan: “Almost as good as Windows!”

10 Apple has been bent over with its pants dropped for so long now, even a geek like Bill Gates was bound to get lucky.

9 Cute rainbow-colored apple now inhabited by cute rainbow-colored worm.

8 Microsoft comes out with an operating system incorporating Mac technology… uh, wait a minute…

7 Phone and utilities mysteriously start working again at Apple’s corporate HQ.

6 Steve Jobs seen tending bar at the Gates’ private lawn party.

5 Diners in Microsoft’s staff cafeteria can now enjoy their apple pie purely for its wholesome goodness and no longer as a symbolic act of global domination.

4 Unsold Newtons used as cobblestones in Gates’s driveway.

3 Apple Employee of the Month gets to hunt loose change at Bill’s house.

2 New Apple employee dress code includes large “Property of B. Gates” tattoo on ass. …and the Number

1 Sign That Microsoft Owns Part of Apple… 1 Bill Gates still burned in effigy, but upper management no longer attends.

In India, smoking hookahs is a great tradition among Rajputs, Gurjars, Jats, Bishnois, etc. Use of hookahs wasn’t just a custom but t’was a matter of prestige. Rich and Royal families would smoke Hookahs.

Hookah tradition started decling with the Mughal Rule but It again gained popularity as cafes and restaraunts started offering them as consumables, once again the seeked attention and gained popularity under the name Sheesha (flavored Hookah) among the Indian Youth.

Sheesha- A synonym for Hookah is a Persian word which is dinotated as Glass.The shisha, also called tombac, gouza, moassel, shisha or sheesha, is a special blend of fresh, dark leaves, fruit pulp, honey or molasses, and glycerine. The shisha is available in a wide variety of flavors including double apple, strawberry, melon, pineapple, vanilla, pistachio, and rose. This blend contains only 0.5% nicotine and no tar.

Indian youth trapped in the fumes of sheesha…

A culture that started from the Royal Throne has now turned as a favorite youth leisure hour trend in India.The reasons accredited to this trend are certain misconceptions that water pipe smoking is not hazardous to health, since the tobacco is filtered through water before inhalation; nicotine content is less than that of cigarettes and addition of fruit flavours make it healthier. Another factor adding to its popularity is its social acceptability as compared to cigarettes and its portrayal is a symbol of modernization of our cultural heritage.

A recent survey states that, more than 70% youngsters in the Indian metrocities and other cities like Ludhiyana, Lucknow, Ahemdabad, Bhopal, Indore, Banglore, Pune, Ranchi, Chandigarh, etc have consumed Shisha.

Sheesha is easily available in every round corner across the Indian streets. Youth – teenagers and adolescents – are the prime visitor of these sheesha lounges who will to pay premium for desired flavours of sheesha. Records report of masses who spend hours consuming sheesha. A typical hour long Shisha session involves inhaling 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled when smoking a cigarette.Its smoke also contains hundreds of potentially dangerous substances including carbon monoxide, charcoal, nicotine, arsenic, cobalt, chromium and lead.

Surveys say that sheesha hubs are more crowded during the hours when educational institutions wait for there presence.Which direction is the youth heading to? Seems like attendence at sheesha hubs is getting mandatory…

There are many who believe that women can’t be good entrepreneurs. A business has a glass ceiling if a woman starts climbing the ladder to success but, amidst the crowd there are many faces that prove this notion wrong.

Indira Nooyi

Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo

Indra Nooyi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She completed her schooling from Holy Angels AIHSS, Chennai. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics,Chemistry and Maths from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976. Beginning her career in India, Nooyi held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell. She was admitted to Yale School of Management in 1978 and earned a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. While at Yale, she completed her summer internship with Booz & Company.Graduating in 1980, Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and then held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001. In 2007 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo.

Kiran Majumdar Shaw

Chairperson and M.D.  of Biocon Limited, Chairperson of Syngene International Limited and Clinigene International Limited.

She started Biocon in 1978. She also established two subsidiaries: Syngene (1994) to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to clinical development services. She received Padma Shri (1989) and the Padma Bhushan (2005) from the government of India.

Born in Bangalore, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw completed her schooling from the city’s Bishop Cotton Girl’s High School (1968). She wanted to join medical school but instead took up biology and completed her BSc Zoology Honors course from Bangalore University (1973). She later did her post-graduation in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University (1975).

Simone Tata

Chairperson of the Trent Limited.

French by birth and educated in Switzerland, she came to India in 1955, and joined Lakmé as Managing Director in 1961, rising to become its Chairperson in 1982. The small subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills went on to become one of the leading cosmetic companies of India. As the Chairperson of Lakmé, she was referred in the Indian media as the Cosmetic Czarina of India. She was appointed to the board of Tata Industries in 1989.

Eyeing growth in the retails sector, in 1996 Tata sold off Lakmé to Hindustan unilever Limited (HLL), and created Trent from the money it made through the sale. All shareholders of Lakmé were given, equivalent share in Trent. The Westside brand and stores belongs to Trent.

Thats all for now.. Yet more to come in subsequent posts..!

Thanks for reading..!

Most of us never think about where we are spending our time.We wake up in the morning and reach the end of the day.Are we clear as in we our utilising our time properly? Though at the end of the day we are tired, but were our efforts in the right direction? Most of us are not aware so as to what our priorities are. We do things thinking that they are important but are they the need of the hour – if yes well and good if no then you must define your priorities to meet the ultimate goal of your life.

One can never have a fix aim.When we fulfill one of our desires we persue another. And with changes in  our goals we need to change our priorities.

Think about all the things you spend your time doing on an average day or even on the weekend. Why do you do those things? Are they really life priorities or do you just do them because that’s what you’ve always done? Or because you just simply enjoy doing that? Or because you are addicted to doing that? Also, do you always do something that’s taking a lot of your time without even realizing it? For example, do you come home and instantly  flip on the tv? Think about why you do that thing. Is it because you’re tired or just because you’ve gotten yourself in a rut without even realizing it?

Do you have a feeling that you are missing up your valuable time?

If yes then it is the time to manage your time and understand your priorities.Now it is important to take out time and decide what do you want from life.Is it friends,fun and peaceful sleep? or Is it fame,money and power? Do you wish to avail maximum returns out of the efforts you put in doing little things in your life? If yes then sit and think where you need to put in efforts.

And once you are through, once you know what your current priority is? In which direction do you need to put in your efforts? How can you get returns by investing your valuable time? Then just get up and get going, do what you are supposed to.

It’s easy to get caught up in the rush just to accomplish all your daily life activities and to not really consider what you want to do or have in your life. Once you know what you want then you can take the steps to achieve it.

At the end, there is a little trick to understand what you do is right for you or not. Let tommorow be just like any other day and at the end note down each and everything you did properly in a numbered order. Then tick the ones you feel will take you towards your goal and cross the ones that take you away. The ticked ones are your priorities and the crossed ones are flaws that you need to eradicate.

And for not deviating repeat this short trick fortnightly and try to achieve maximum numbers of tickmarks in your life.

Priorities are not what you think they are.Priorities are what you make them. Nothing and no person in this world is important unless and untill you make it so. If you achieve what you want from life other things can come back to you later as a complementory gift. Run after your dreams and everything else (may it be fame, finance, friends or foes) will follow you.

Few days ago my Bff told me that we should start blogging and since I always had some hidden instinct to write I an here.When I school I used to write some essays every now and then for my english test. But after 12th I hardly remember having written something of my own.

I never took blogging seriously because I just had no idea as to what am I gonna write. But, now I have decided that since I am writing for myself I should write about myself. So, I am just gonna pen down my day to day experiences. NO! I dont mean I am gonna pen down my daily schedule over here.. not at all.Just things I come across and develop an opinion about it. And I am sure that is indeed a good subject for blogging because these days I find myself developing opinions on almost everything.

Basically, I have decided to write so that I can improve my writing skills, develop my own opinion and judge myself on the basis of how well can I express my thoughts. I can do it using a pen and paper as well but I feel atleast someone out there will come across my blog and may take the pain of going through it and may highlight the pros and cons. So, just to get feedbacks and also to save paper

Now the first thing I am gonna do is inform my bff about my blog and ask her to read it. Then I am gonna tell about it to my other friends whenever possible so that my chances of being read increases because no matter what there has to be a driving force to make me do something..!

Its over.!

Thanks for reading it…

Bye.