UTP

What moves me…

August 17, 2008 – 8:30 pm

I am a very sensitively emotional person. I am very easily inspired. I have been pretty much an introvert for most of my life. There was a recent phase where I deemed to give an impression of a completely open person but it was all an act. I enjoy being a closed box and the little extrovert that people get a glimpse of is just my way of hiding the real me.

Hence, being sensitive, emotional and a natural introvert at the same time leads to being someone who gets moved very easily. It leads to goosebumps, shivers and sometimes even a watery eye or two also. So the other day I thought this could become a great blog post.

A list of things or events or situations that would make me really emotional. So here they are. See if you could relate to the same. This is in no order. Just a random sequence. Enjoy.

- Sufism. Any kind of poetry or verse or music that links this world with the world above. The double meaning poetry that can move you towards the path of right. Which could make you repent and correct your ways. Abida Parveen, Aziz Mian Qawwal top the list for me in this regime.

- Making my parents proud. Who doesn’t? I believe that is the greatest achievement in life if one can make his parents feel proud and head held high because of him. I mean you have to feel it to know how it feels. Nothing better.

- Reaching the much awaited goal. Sometimes so much is sacrificed for something and so much waiting is done. Sometimes the result is dependent on someone else’s efforts. So a joint team effort where so much was given up individually for a team goal and then you reach it…the team reaches it…

- Patriotism. Representing your country outside the country and doing something good. I have been lucky to actually represent Pakistan in a field of sport when I was very young. Singing your National Anthem while everyone stands and respects it in a foreign country. Anything that reminds me of my roots. Which refreshes the love for my country, moves me.

- Mother of a martyr. The moment of the hearing of news of martyrdom of his son to a mother, always overwhelms me. I have seen enough dramas and movies to enjoy the feeling again and again. Its just takes over my emotions. There is a story in every instant of that emotion. So many words in that quiet solemn look of that mother.

- Overwhelming joy. Sometimes, a much awaited event happens at the right moment of time. That could hit the weakest point of emotions. Tears of joy.

- The innocence of the unaware. Everyone has their own experiences but if I have gone something and learnt my lessons in the hardest possible way. Then I see someone going through the same. They wont listen to my advice just like I didn’t. Everyone wants to go through the experience.

- Music really moves me. In fact any kind of creativity moves me. I was watching one programme and on that live program, a poet wrote a few quick yet beautiful lines and a music composer immediately composed it into a beautiful tune. That moved me.

- Related to music only. The true Sur (note) when hit in the saddest of emotion. I do not really understand the raags or science of music but I know that when that particular note is hit either through a singer’s voice or sound of a flute or sitar, that moves every bit of me.

- Any kind of creative effort in an art form. A story behind a painting, a classical dance reflecting a story, a stand alone story told by a great narrator such as Zia Mohiuddin.

- The traditional love stories such as Heer Ranjha & Laila Majnoo and the similar lot. The basic emotion of separation of lovers and the agony felt. I am an old-fashioned person and such events move me in the most poetic way possible. The separation, the anxiety and then the meeting back leading to the overwhelming joy as mentioned above. If all of it done in some stage play or music or classical dance…WOAH!!!

I just realized that each one of the above could have made a blog post in its own but I have summarized it under each point. Anyway, this is a new kind of tag [even though I HATE tags]. Try it out, it would make a good keepsakes post to keep in your archive.

Posted in The Other Side | 12 Comments so far ~ Whats your opinion? »

How do I change my opinion about someone?

August 11, 2008 – 8:55 pm

We as humans complain so much about the unfairness of life and the way things are. Have we ever realized its only because being unfair is one of the easiest thing for us to do?

I think the biggest drawback of having the ability to have an opinion for us is that we can be judgmental in the most negative ways possible. The famous line of “First Impression is the last impression…” wouldn’t have existed if we didn’t have this ability of holding or voicing our opinion.

There are very essential good points of being able to change the world for good and making your thoughts count. If we didn’t have the chance or ability to voice our opinion then the world could never improve. Our natural tendencies of evil would lead this world to become hell in no time. Its only that there are so many opinions that people question and raise their voice on things. The “questioning” aspect of life is what makes the other humans think and leads to discussions and dialogue and the best possible solution comes out as accepted by the majority.

Just imagine if that weren’t there. We know ourselves very well. It would have been disastrous.

We can easily be really rude and biased when it comes to creating opinions about people. The few bad instances especially the early ones in an interaction with somebody are good enough for us to start judging people. Is that fair? I personally think, everyone deserves multiple chances. Who are we to judge people and “not forgive” when the Almighty gives us as many chances to correct our image as we want?

We are very quick to create our opinion about somebody and start judging them for the rest of our and their lives. That is the biggest negative of having opinions in the first place. No matter how forgiving you are and no matter how much you want to refresh the button and re-create the image, its just not possible for us. Its just not natural for us to remove something from our memory.

We don’t have a delete button in our memory. We only have auto-archive option but no delete. This is a bigger-than-any mailbox than was ever created. Where do you think Google got the Gmail idea of unlimited mailbox storage? heheh…

Anyway, so what can we do. I want to start liking somebody and want to forget the bad image I have about that particular person. How do I rewind and let him restart? We do want to do that many times in our lives. Here is something that I tried and well I think it is possible.

Find 3 things good about him/her and dwell on it for a while. Live it, while initially deciding that I will create a good opinion about that person. Set your mind to ignore every bad thought that comes and create a good image. Its something like the“not guilty unless proven” theory. Let him/her try to be a good person for the new image.

That should initiate the process of the change of opinion. I use the word “initiate” as I know its much easier said than done. It is going to take some time and a lot of flawless good stuff for a while to change an opinion. We can be stubborn with our mindsets. But if one is successful in the approach it can be the easiest way to like everybody, a big asset of an ability. There has to be something like-able about anybody. If your answer becomes “NO” for that and you can’t find anything like-able in the process, then trust me you are not trying hard enough. A big change of attitude is required.

See even though I believe memories can’t be erased but I believe that if you have enough good things about an event or a person in your head as compared to the bad things, they can be over-written or at least the feel of things can be changed from bad to good.

I am sure everyone who has done a bit of self-evaluation as a human being, which by the way is an essential part of being successful in life, would know how bad we can be. The potential of reaching the highest level of ruthlessness is an in-born quality of us humans. We can be really unfair when we want to be.

If we are aware, we can do something to counter it.

Posted in Professor UTP, Thoughts | 16 Comments so far ~ Whats your opinion? »

Reach for the SKY but…

August 5, 2008 – 9:20 pm

We have all heard this one many times before also.

Reach for the skies. Its a metaphor for trying your best, to aim for high targets and then working towards them. Aim for the sky. Fly high.

When a bird’s egg hatches and the baby chick comes out, it is already looking up. It may be because it is hungry and is going to get some worms from mama or he may already be aiming for the sky. I like the latter definition better.

Since a bird is supposed to fly, it already starts looking up from the day its born. Once you start looking towards your goal you start thinking about it. Trying to make it your target to focus upon. To set all things in such a way that your road of life heads towards that.

I believe in aiming high. High targets stretch you further than you would have otherwise gone if you had kept your targets easily attainable. They say that one should keep their targets and goals as stretching. They should not be too high that you could never make it. They should be achievable yet stretching. That is one of the job functions a manager has for his people too. Setting such kind of goals so that the people under him constantly strive to improve.

Anyway, reaching for the skies is a good thing but…yes it has a “but” and its a huge “BUT”…

It is very essential that and I quote, “You keep your feet on the ground”.

You can only reach for the goals set if you succeed in keeping your feet on the ground as well which means considering reality. Keeping the practicality in perspective as well. One who strikes the balance succeeds.

I mean whats the use of reaching your goals if you can reach there but cant stay there cos there is no solid base. You can fly and reach the stars but it would be more useful if one keeps his bond with the basics. When one has a solid foundation it is very probably that all achievements will be everlasting.

So that one can build from his achievements to achieve even more. Set new goals. Set new limits. So there it is friends, another lesson from life.

“Reach for the skies, but keep your feet on the ground…”

Posted in Professor UTP | 22 Comments so far ~ Whats your opinion? »