FAQs

Last night, just as the sleep goddess came to grace me by gently drifting me into divine slumber, a touch of brilliance flashed in my semi conscious grey matter - FAQs - frequently askable questions that is! I resisted the urge to get up and record my brilliance :-D and thankfully unlike most of the midnight profundities that come and go in semi sleep, this one spark stayed with me all the day, marinating in my endangered mind and thus, the pretext to skip blogging with something called "writer's block" doesn't happen todaySo back to where it is supposed to be - FAQs are the other version of the FAQs we have for others every where we go from businesses, to service organizations to individuals. These versions of the questions are the ones that we as people should keep asking to ourselves from time to time. My interaction with some specimens actually nudged me to think of why and how we need to do a little interrogation with ourselves time and time again, just to keep the stupidity quotient of ours in check. So here goes my desperate attempt to not be one of those specimens I encounter on a day to day basis - Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting  the Frequently Askable Questions. May be you can insert your own answers in the brackets.

*What are the easiest things to have?
 (Opinions and excuses)

*Why are people  nice to me?
   (More often than not, I'd want to believe that I deserve it - but the actual reason is that people are nice to me because they are well mannered and nice people to begin with and it is good if I respect that  fact and reciprocate that niceness.)

* Why should I be nice to nice people?

    (Because nice people are getting fewer and fewer and being nice to them encourages them to continue to be nice and shall probably inspire many others to take the same road.)

* Why should I not shout at soft people?

   (For obvious reasons. If you are a submissive person, it doesn't mean that you have a tattoo on your forehead that says "come and walk allover me" - it is not an accomplishment to vent your frustrations on nice people - if we are humans enough, we should use that energies to bully bullies :-D

*Why is it much easier to pass judgement on others while being blissfully unaware of my own faults?

  (Because, I as human am susceptible to a self love called "Ego". My ego rules my world and makes me blind to my own shortcomings, and just because I don't notice my faults, they don't cease to exist)

* Am I a hypocrite

(Yes, I probably am)

*Why do I extend my judgement skills to little kids?

(well, just because I don't discriminate)

*What is my statement mannerism?

(smile? ignoring others? rolling eyes ever so slightly when I see someone in good clothing, cars or homes?)

*Why am I curious about other people's lives?

(Probably because I am a miserable low life myself and I can know more about others and a) judge them as show offs b) be jealous of them and make lowly remarks to put them down  c) I don't have anything better to do with my time)

*Why do I take all the efforts to make someone feel bad?

( because I am jealous of them)

*What stops me from recognizing someone's accomplishments and paying a genuine compliment?

(a) My self love which warns me that saying something nice to others will make them look down upon me b) I just don't see much of appreciable work around me c) ignoring others' good qualities makes me deal with my own lack of them.)

*Why don't I say sorry or thanks as often as I am supposed to say?

( a) I am impeccable and I don't need anyone's favors  b) I don't have a habit of apologizing for others' mistakes and thanking for what I rightly deserve to get.)

* If there is one thing I can do - what will it be? Will it be for myself? for my family and friends? or for the world? Will it be for revenge and hatred or for love and kindness?

*Why do I behave like I am here to stay and I why don't I realize that I cannot take anything that I accumulate with me?

  ( Because I am a fool!)

*Why do I rewrite rules for myself?

   ( for my own convenience.)

* Why do I overly defend something I do or say?

 (May be the pesky conscience is flashing a "guilty" flag!)

* Why do I see negative things around me more than the positives?

(because I am a negative person)

Well, there are some more that skip the mind at the moment - but I shall one day, make a laundry list of positive FAQs inspired by the wonderful people I ran into :-D

Keep the FAQs rising and keep finding the answers. God Bless.

Newness

Honestly, 2012 doesn't feel like a New Year. My family was here last night - we waited till 12 midnight, cut the cake and did the celebratory kick off of the year with something sweet and then everything magically seemed to have settled into a harmony. There were no resolutions made, since I know I am very prone to breaking them - instead I thought I'd approach the New year with a normalcy and a little effort to be as productive as I can be. So, internet time should be curtailed to blogging instead of Facebooking or Youtubing! The biggest challenge of my day to day chores is to scour the dishes - I seem to enjoy the chopping and cooking, but cleaning is a totally different animal - and when the cleaning involves dishing, it is a nightmare of the first order. I have a momentary block to reach out for the dirty dishes - and then I ignore it and reach for them - pumping foam onto the scouring pad and wiping away the pots and pans - Boring I know - both dishing and blogging about it like it is para sailing where you get to see an awesome view of the world below while defying gravity! :-D Okay, back on track - I had to mention dishing because, today I seemed to have consciously not let any of them pile up in the sink - the moment something hits the sink to be cleaned - it is cleaned. And considering the fact that I cooked three meals for 8 people today - I am awfully proud of the "operation dishing". As mundane as boring this exercise seems to be, it did drive home a point to me - when you do things when they are to be done, the effort taken to do them seems to cut into a fraction of how much tedious it gets when you procrastinate it. Imagine - one deep sink, piled up with pots, pans, dinner plates, water cups, mugs, cutlery - some of them tilting and overflowing the sink in an odd angle - the sight seems to make the whole surrounding a mess - forget the surrounding - the whole house a mess. When they are promptly attended to and put away, I was amazed at how vast the whole counter top and the kitchen looked and how well kept the home seemed. So, the very obvious lesson reinstated itself into my little brain today. Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. Did I tell you, I am always preoccupied. ALWAYS - my mind is so volatile, extremely infidel if I could say so. It keeps jumping from a branch of thought to another - almost like a monkey haywire in a banana grove. Thoughts keep coming into my mind without a break - so I do have an attention span of a five year old when it comes to staying in the moment. Sometimes I drag my grey cells to be in the moment. It tires me since that is going against my core. So, I thought - may be all connoisseurs  of  arts like reading, writing, sculpting, singing, painting and the whole nine yards are actually thinkers? Okay, why should I be partial to arts? All science professionals as well are thinkers - the architects, scientists, programmers, mathematicians, teachers - you get the idea! The other day, I had this funny thought that crossed my mind - I wanted to say out loud that I am a "Thinker" - and just for a flash of a second I paused and thought about what being a thinker actually means. And, to my disbelief, I immediately discovered that being a thinker doesn't mean much at all - being a Doer is what walks away with the cake. The other day I was pitching in my language love saying that the best of ideas are futile if they are not articulated! - may be the best of ideas are futile even when they are articulated - not until and unless they are executed. So from dishing to blogging - my expectation for 2012 is as simple and complicated as it can get - "Keep thinking, and keep executing what you are thinking as you are thinking. The heap of teaspoons that end up in the dish don't end up there anymore. I slather them with soap, rinse them to a shine and place them in the caddy to dry -  only hoping that the debris of thoughts that pile up in the mind would be handled in a similar fashion.

I don't do the dishwasher - (LOL) sounds funny but what I meant to say is that the dishwasher somehow complicates the already complicated task of dishing.  :-D

Here's wishing a wonderful 2012 and may 12/12/12 come and go - making a ridicule of itself!

God Bless.