No Country For This Art

It has been more than a year since I wrote, I lost touch and haven't been able to write or maybe I just couldn't find time for it. Between texts and emails, I forgot about this blog. But I am back as I had an experience which I want to share with all of you.

On 7th Nov'19 I visited my sister along with my wife and my mother, she lives in Saket. So we went out with intentions to go to the mall for the movie but on our way, I saw a gate that said "Asiad Circus" and show times were also mentioned. It was 15 minutes before the next show so I convinced everyone to watch the circus instead of the movies.

When we went in, I was surprised to see only 20-something people in the entire facility. The number of guys selling coke, eateries, and staff who manage props in real-time was more than us. 

Every time a performer came he/she waived but no one waived back to them, they did a brilliant job but people did not clap (I clapped many times) I could feel what a person might think performing in a large arena with a handful number of people that too were not participating, It was awkward for me at many instances. At one point in a performance, a Dog was supposed to pick up the number with input from the audience, they asked many times to give them a number but no one did, even I did not(Don't know why). The guy selling popcorn yelled "5" the dog picked number 5. 

Talking about performances, they were brilliant, risky, and courageous. But it's a shame that a person who puts in this kind of hard work is not getting any audience/encouragement. 

I don't remember all performances as I had not planned to write a blog on this, nor did I capture pics of all acts but to summarize, it began with a good trapeze performance, and it also had that classic midget pants-pulling trick in the air. They all jumped in the net at the end, great landing by all. Then came the juggler who was also good, Russian artists presented a few acts that were different and you can say innovative, they were also encouraging people to engage with the performance via clapping. Few really good cycle tricks. The man with fire tricks, a man with water tricks, a girl with the ball in a basket, and a girl dancing with hula hoops. Dogs and Birds show. 3 bikes in a sphere. There are many more I need help remembering, attaching pics for your reference.

In the end, you must go and see such shows once in a while, not out of pity but out of respect for the talent these people have. Hats Off, 

Regards

Vivek Choudhary

What is Kalyug

Below is a story told by Lord Krishna to Pandavas.
And it is pretty much true, All predictions mentioned in the story have come true.

Once the four Pandavas (except Yudhishthira who was not present) asked Krishna, What is Kali Yuga?

Krishna smiled and said, "Let me demonstrate to you, the situation of Kaliyuga." He took a bow and four arrows and shot them in four directions and ordered the four Pandavas to go and bring them back.

Each of the four Pandavas went in four different directions to search for the arrows.

When Arjuna picked an arrow, he heard a very sweet voice. He turned around and saw a cuckoo singing in a spellbinding voice but was also eating the flesh of a live rabbit who was in great pain. Arjuna was very surprised to see such a gory act by such a divine bird he left the place immediately.

Bhima picked an arrow from a place, where five wells were situated. The four wells were surrounding a single well. The four wells were overflowing with very sweet water as if they were not able to hold water and surprisingly the well in the middle of these four overflowing wells was completely empty. Bhima was also puzzled at this sight.

Nakula was returning to the place after picking up the arrow. He stopped at a place where a cow was about to give birth. After giving birth the cow started licking the calf but continued to lick it even after the calf was clean. With great difficulty people were able to separate them and by that time the calf was injured badly. Nakula was puzzled by the behavior of such a calm animal.

Sahadeva picked an arrow that fell near a mountain and saw a big boulder falling. The boulder was crushing the rocks and big trees on its way down, but the same boulder was stopped by a small plant. Sahadeva was also amazed at this sight.

All the Pandavas asked about the meaning of these incidents. Krishna smiled and started explaining...

"In Kaliyuga, the priests will have a very sweet voice and will also have great knowledge but they will exploit devotees the same way cuckoo was doing with rabbit.

In Kaliyuga poor will live among the rich, and those rich will have an enormous amount of wealth that will actually overflow but they will not offer a single penny to the poor same as the four wells didn't have a single drop of water for the empty well.

In Kaliyuga parents will love their children so much that their love will actually spoil them and will destroy their lives similar to the love shown by the cow to her newborn calf.

In Kaliyuga people will fall in terms of character like the boulder from the mountain and they will not be stopped by anyone at the end only the name of God will be able to hold them from doom like the little plant held the boulder from further fall."

~ Uddhava Gita, Srimad Bhaagawatam.

When the Traffic police stopped me again

I am a guy who follows rules, and I like things organized, Imagine if all stopped following rules, there will be chaos everywhere.

So I was going home from work around 4:30 PM today (18 Jan'18) and this traffic policeman waved at me to stop. It was near the Delhi Gurgaon toll near Ambiance Mall. I was surprised and looked back if there is any other vehicle he might be waving at, but there was no other vehicle (I take the service lane to exit the highway)  So I pointed a finger at myself to confirm if he is intending to stop me, he nodded so I stopped. I was initially thinking he stopped me because my helmet strap wasn't tied. But he told me that he stopped me because my number plates are not HSRP (High-security registration plates). I told him I didn't know it was mandatory (I knew).

He then starts checking all my papers, I got my license, and I showed him images of other documents on my phone, he then asked for PUC (Pollution under control)  I did not have this document.

So he said No HSRP plates fine = 600, No PUC fine = 1000
Total fine = 1600 INR

I was taken aback by this amount, I thought it should be 500 max I will pay and bounce.
But luckily I did not have any cash on me, I told him to swipe his card, and he said we aren't that digital yet.
He gave me an option, he would keep my license and I will go get cash from ATM.

So I went to the Kapashera border, got cash from ATM, and decided to get PUC also, so I headed towards Petrol Pump, while getting PUC I saw a policeman sitting there and I asked him about the number plates and fine on them. He told me it was just 100 rs, I opened google and found out it's true. Even a four-wheeler gets a 300 rs fine whereas that traffic policeman was demanding 600.

So I got cash and PUC, I went to the highway, and showed him PUC (there goes the 1000rs fine out the window) and handed him 100 rs and said, I know the fine is just 100 rs. He laughed and then asked me where I work. I told him and then he asked me whether I could help him get a discount on a laptop.

Long story short, if I had the cash I would be out 1600 rs, instead, I just paid 100 rs
Piece of advice, get PUC as everyone knows that mostly no one has it.

Here is a link for traffic fines for reference.
https://delhitrafficpolice.nic.in/public-interface/traffic-offence/

Vivek Choudhary

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Chaos is a ladder

Yes, you are right, I am using Baelish's line from Game of Thrones, but the article has nothing related to the show.

There are times when our life goes very smoothly with no problems at all. This period may go on for days, or months, and if you are lucky then it can last for years also. I wish everyone has years of smooth life without any big hustle to go through.

It affects your life but this is the time when you can improve and become a different person altogether instead of surrendering we need to stand up and take charge. This little Chaos will come every now and then, especially from the time we reach our mid-twenties till the time we retire. I previously wrote about uncertainty, It’s almost the same thing. We need to prepare ourselves so that when the time comes in which we have to deal with a situation we are not used to, our hands won’t shake, we don’t panic, and we maintain a peaceful and sensible approach towards the problem. I am not saying don’t be happy in good times, but just hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Life has a tendency to catch us off guard, we should know how to maintain balance.

I call it chaos as during the time we have to deal with a certain inevitable issue, our entire plan gets disrupted. Plans might be big or of high importance to us, and it feels bad if we have to postpone or cancel them. It causes stress and we can end up making rash decisions. On the other hand, if we are mentally prepared then we can deal with it like all our other problems.

Vivek Choudhary

The Whatsapp DP drama

He sent a good morning message to his friend/girlfriend.

*a few hours later*

He checks his WhatsApp and puts a sad WhatsApp profile pic and status because he didn’t get any reply yet.

He asks his familiar friend to message her just to confirm if she is ignoring him or not.

*After a few more hours*

He feels bad and removes his WhatsApp profile pic.

Finally, he got a reply from her. He feels happy and he puts his smiling profile pic again.

---

I’ve been seeing this a lot lately. I think it’s complete stupidity to remove dp and status.

That’s the story of almost every Indian youth out there. Whenever they feel sad they just remove their WhatsApp profile pic as they think it’s an easy way to get sympathy and Attention.

They think that if they remove their Dp and Status, people will start asking them, Why? When? Who? How? (Which actually happens in most cases).

I want to give one piece of advice to all the youngsters out there.

No one actually cares

If you have a WhatsApp DP or not

No one actually cares if you are happy or not

Care for yourself

The moment you start sympathizing with yourself, you become meek at that moment.

Never ever disclose your weakness and the times when you were down. I am attaching a beautiful answer at the end. I hope it will help all the broken heart people out there.

P.S I haven’t changed my DP or status since 2014, because it doesn’t matter to me, I see WhatsApp as an application I use, not a reflection of my life ;)

Vivek Choudhary 

If you are one of these, you wont make it to the top.

There are many kinds of people, I see them every day, some are hard-working, some are lazy, some are smart, some are stupid, and a few are miserable. But none of them know what they are, and when they know it, it will be too late.
It doesn't concern me what people are or what they do as long as they don't cross paths with me.
But being a blogger I must come up with something to write. And for some reason, Time, Hard Work, and Success are my favorite topics. I can speak on these topics for hours.

So I have gathered 3 reasons I believe why some people will fail, or won't grow in life.

1. Disrespecting Time

"Lost time is never found again" - Benjamin Franklin

Unsuccessful people don’t value their time. They are everywhere, anywhere, anytime because they lack the ability to dedicate their time towards their goals. And year after year they make new promises which never come to fruition simply because they couldn’t be bothered to put in the time required toward their goals. Time management skills, learning how to say no, and knowing what commitments to undertake, is a step towards great success in any area of our lives.

2. No Goals

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” – Roy Disney

The more important a goal is, the higher it will be on your hierarchy of values and the more discipline and order you will have associated with it. The less important a goal is, the lower it will be on your hierarchy of values and the less discipline and more disorder you’ll have associated with it. Unsuccessful people have mistaken busyness for productivity. They are a part of everything but nothing which they do is in alignment with their values and their goals. Writing down in a journal your goals and implementing strategies that can get you there will help you identify things that are not on par with where you are going.

3. Making Excuses

“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good” – Bill Gates

These are the people who will find reasons and logic as to why they can’t and why they shouldn’t. They sometimes mistake this abhorrent tendency for “just being realistic”. They lack imagination and always find ways to justify why something shouldn’t be but they never really try. The best remedy for this is to stop your mind when it’s about to start making excuses and re-ignite the engine that has started it all.

Then again, these are my personal opinions, Do whatever you want. It's your life.

Vivek Choudhary

Boring Life

Generation gap is a serious issue and it leads to many conclusions taking place in brains of people on either side. There will be a time when this gap will become permanent with no damage control.

Often we perceive older/elders as boring because they do things differently, or not the way you want. But we're not always right. There is a lot which we don't know and will only learn with time. 

A thought which I believe everyone thinks nowadays and I don't agree to it.
So I am going to try to explain.

There is a very dangerous trap which 95% of people fall.

It all starts in teen ages – at this age you start to realize yourself as a unique human being, with a unique identity, talents, skills etc...

And somehow, everyone thinks that his or her life is going to be as unique as they feel they are.

However, here goes the essence of the trap: Young people associate uniqueness and happiness of their whole life with uniqueness of themselves, and think it’s just impossible to be otherwise. 

Youngsters look at adults and think that they are boring, they just don’t get it, they don’t understand how cool life is. Teenagers can never ever even consider the possibility of ending up living the same boring lives as their parents. Why? Because they think “I am just so unique and different…”.
So instead of working hard and act on their “uniqueness” to develop it and make it evolve, they just live and think it is all going to happen on its own….

But it won’t.

And this is exactly how these bright and uniquely talented young people end up living a boring mediocre life – complaining about everything around while trying to justify the way they spent their lives.

So this is what I will try to teach my kids (Someday down the line) – life DOES NOT just happen, but boring life does.

Vivek Choudhary

With Inputs from Yura Yazlovytskyy