Tag: fun

Success

Strange things about me

Today I’ll share some strange things about me. Which are 100% true.

  1. I’ve NEVER had a WiFi at my place. Because I don’t watch any show. So why do you need to screw yourself all the time with the Internet?
  2. That said, never watched any IPL match ever. Ever.
  3. I don’t order out. The last time I had Zomato on my phone was in (the first week of) March 2020 when I was travelling for a work assignment.
  4. Exited family groups. Yes, I’m allergic to negativity.
  5. I miss out 99% of family gatherings :)))

With that, there’s a strange twitter thread I wrote about how I work only for two hours per day. There you go! Enjoy 🙂

Success

Productivity like never

If you feel you have less work to do today

And it’s okay if you put off the most important task to later

Just to waste a few minutes here and there

The Law of Productivity (that no one uses the nomenclature of, however, it exists), says that you will still be unproductive till the end of the day.

Uncategorized

Is it something that you really want?

The world is glorifying what they have done.
Making all attempts to get famous (nothing wrong btw).
Or justifying why their parents failed them.

I get that.
I hear that.
I understand where you are coming from.

The only question is: Do you really want it?

If yes, please stop reading this right now.

However, if what you are chasing is something you don’t like fully, perhaps today is a good day to start with thinking alone for 30 minutes. Don’t you think so?

Uncategorized

The Taj difference

Last weekend, as I went with my team to Goa, we stayed in the Taj.

In the past, I have stayed in several 3 and 4 star hotels of small and medium brands, however, staying in the Taj showed what luxury looks like. Here is what were the differences between the Taj and other hotels:

  1. The cutlery was kept in an envelope on your table. Always. It made it look so neat.
  2. There was a table + 2 chairs in each balcony. Didn’t see it in any hotel or resort so far.
  3. The buttons had names printed on them – vestibule, master, directions of lights, etc.
  4. The fridge cabinet was beautiful – looked like 9 synchronous drawers.
  5. The TV was not fitted ON the wall, it was fitted IN a custom made hole inside the wall.
  6. The Chef prepared onion and garlic free upma and sambhar for me – because that is how I like it.
  7. The breakfast menu – every head had 2-3 more items than the usual buffet – which made it grand. Also, each head was kept separately – a strategy to think for other hotels.
  8. An indoor AND an outdoor restaurant by the sea.

These were the differences I noticed, other than the usual ones, such as – bigger rooms, nice toiletries, outdoor decorations, super clean and classic washrooms, lotsss of bottles of water being given in housekeeping, glass door on the bathroom but nothing was visible, no need to ask for bathroom slippers or toothbrushes like other hotels – they were by default present, clean roads of the resort, etc.

Overall, a wonderful experience! The Taj rocks 🙂

Okay, some pics here.

PS: If you look on the outside, there was no difference between a 4 star and the Taj. However, when you look closely, you see all the differences.

Uncategorized

Cold rice and hot burning dal

Since I was burning with fever yesterday, the rice I prepared day before yesterday was used yesterday as well.

Used it as fried rice for lunch and dal rice for dinner.

The dal was freshly prepared, and the rice were cold. So when I poured hot burning dal on rice, the mixture still seemed sort of cold.

It made me think – as to how much power does being “chilled out” have. No matter how hot (or angry) someone else is, when you are chilled out, anything that comes in your contact also gets chilled out.

Would you want to give this a try?

Knowing Yourself

What an influencer!

These days you are learning a lot about my meditation retreat experiences. You’ll have them coming more, for the coming few days.

So while on that retreat, I happened to meet an influencer who stays there in the ashram. And when I went to meet him in his office (that was adjacent to the room he stayed in), I was stunned by what I saw!

While the ashram is big, I had thought his room as well to be one.

But that’s what his room was a reminder of: giving, sacrifice and living as who you are – not as what you want to show.

And meeting him was indeed a wonderful experience 🙂

Thoughts

Stories on the street

Each morning as I walk or drive for around ten minutes to go to my meditation class, there are countless stories to witness on the street.

Here’s the two I witnessed today:

  1. A man was standing with his cart containing buckets of pickles. That is what he would be selling whole day, to make a living. Here he was, standing in a corner, serving pickle in a small bag. He then called out to the trash collector to come, so he could have his breakfast.
    Such beautiful thing. Most of us don’t do philanthropy because we feel we ourselves don’t have enough. But it is only in giving, that we receive the most. You do not have to empty your bank accounts. A small act of care each day, is more than enough. If someone who makes his living selling pickles can do it, what excuse do you and I have?
  2. Another woman was brooming the road, with the broom taylor made for thick surfaces. It is unlike the one that we use in our homes. It’s streaks are thicker, which makes it easier to remove dust from there.
    As this woman was brooming the road, I noticed a strange thing: that I could not observe dust on the road. Yet, as she broomed, the dust became prominent in every movement.
    That was a beautiful lesson: around how the deepest things are not visible. It is only through tough scratching that they surface. So are the things in our lives. Our deepest pains are buried behind us cracking jokes, being on time, being addicted to work, etc. Only when a deeper pain comes that it brings all that is within – to the forefront.
    A wonderful reminder of how we pain brings the best in us.

That said, there is a third story as well – story of you and I – walking on the roads, streets, malls, etc.
We get the stories that we see. And we become them.

The question is: What do we see?

Life

Pre-weekend lessons of life

  1. Everyone is right. Even if we think otherwise.
  2. So are you. Even if you think otherwise.
  3. In case of an emotional outburst, spend time with a good book.
  4. You become whom you spend time with on Instagram. Choose that wisely 🙂
  5. The world is feeding you a template each day. What you do in your capacity to be a rebel defines who you are.
People

Does love die?

Love is like a plant, it is supposed to blossom.

In the initial years, it requires a lot of care to grow. If we are careful about that for at least a decade, it will automatically nurture itself later. Then it would become the strong tree, that gives shade and does not require much of nurturing.

But if we don’t nurture it in the start, it does wither. And slowly goes away.

Coming to the question: Does love die? Of course it does. When we don’t nurture the first few years with care and trust, be it in any relationship, nothing is left. If it is a relationship we cannot run away from, such as family, we learn to accept them – but there is hardly any connection. If there is a relationship that we can go away from – a partner, friend, business relationship – the best we could do for them is bless them!

Love, btw, begins with yourself. But that’s for another day.

Knowing Yourself, Process

How transformation feels like

We don’t go from eating junk to eating healthy.
We go from finding solace in food to finding solace in inner powers.

We don’t transform from an angry teenager to a calm one easily.
We go from using energy on others to using it on our own senses.

We don’t go from being fat to think.
We go to changing the stories in our head.

We don’t become a morning person one day all of a sudden.
We become one when we die in the morning despite working whole night.

It turns out, transformation does not mean having a change.
Transformation means using the old habit to become a new one.

Use the bad to become the good.

Humour

A secret about my marriage

Nine years ago, in 2011, my elder sister was getting married.
I was twenty at the time. And I hated marriage. (I still do :D)

A day before marriage, our aunt (masi) brought her a bowl of hand-pounded halwa. It was basically made of roti crushed through hand, along with sugar and loads of ghee. The purpose was to make sure that the bride remains strong and healthy while going through the wedding ceremonies.

As my sister was having it, my masi and I were sitting next to her. This sweet preparation was also to be eaten by someone who was to get married next. And I clearly wasn’t the one, given my age as well as worldviews.

Still I ate that yummy thing. It was so delicious, and I was going through her wedding tiredness more than her 🙂

But of course, eating that preparation didn’t end up getting me married, as it is believed to be so.
Several years later on my cousin’s marriage, I was purposefully given that preparation so I got married. I had that dry-fruits and sweet-filled preparation happily, enjoyed it and forgot about it.

The best part is, I am still unmarried. Not as a “side-effect” of those sweet-preparations (lol), rather out of choice.
How can a life decision be dependent on eating something?

This helps to understand, that the next time we are given a belief that is going on for long, it pays to not believe it. While still making the best of it 🙂

Knowing Yourself

The best thing of 2021

I recently conducted an AMA on Instagram about the best thing that had happened to people in 2021 so far.

The responses were surprising.

While I had expected people to say things like got a new job, promotion, etc., most responses went with:

1. Started prioritising myself.

2. Taking care of what I want.

3. Took up yoga to for myself.

4. Moved to a new city.

5. Learnt to live on my own.

And so on and so forth.

Loved it! When people take care of themselves, they are able to take care of others more. Which isn’t true vice versa.

Looking forward to having more of them and seeing people get more powerful.

Success

This is my best work to date!

A freelance company recently reached out to me and asked about my best work to date.

All artists have their best works.
Steve Jobs.
Seth Godin.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Robin Sharma.
Adam Grant.

However, the best thing about their best work is that they show up despite making a super hit.

I think the best piece about my work is “showing up”. Let’s say I have written a bestselling book and it breaks all records in all bestselling lists. Everything is great! But what if I stop writing altogether after that? Will my best work hold any relevance?

That is why, the best work any artist could do is to show up to produce their art every single day, irrespective of what mood, weather, or mindset they are in. If we just show up and show up and show up again, we build a brand of consistency which creates trust among the community as well as clients (current and prospective). That is the best work. 

The best part of this best work is: We ALL can do it, yet most give up in the first year itself.

You can read the full interview here.

Self Love, Uncategorized

Pre-valentine post: Just quit!

I did not love myself at all, when I was in two toxic relationships:

  1. You’ll look good with this.
  2. Wear this, don’t wear this.
  3. Quit writing your blog.
  4. Quit preparing for CA.
  5. Just quit, just listen to me and I will love you.

I lol at myself how I was such a fool to call such instances “love”.

Anyway, those were idiotic steps on my part. But today I received a finalised video about a project that I’m working on. And life’s come a full circle!

Don’t know what would happen to this project, but I’m glad to have never quit and didn’t choose this kind of “love”.

If you have a choice between love and career, do they really love you if they don’t love your choice for your career?

PS: In the new project, I was looking exactly opposite of what these gentlemen wanted me to look like. Self love is super power! Happy Valentine’s Day peops! Hope you love yourself 🙂

Life

Five facts of fulfilled life

  1. All the success we see on the outside is achieved in isolation.
  2. The life today is just perfect, as it should be.
  3. Anger from people won’t change anything for you.
  4. Less words a person speaks, more successful they truly are. Period.
  5. It’s not that bad !

PS: This is What YOU Are Looking For!

Knowing Yourself, Life

It’s great that you’re not a laptop

My laptop turned ten this January. (Lol, looks like I’m talking about my kid. Haha, except that it is not my kid, I’ve just typed so much that it is just my therapist taking all the mental health issues outta me 😀 )

So, coming to the laptop.
It’s slow.
Can’t work on videos.
Since my work is primarily writing, we are still in a relationship.
But it takes time to download from and upload to the drive.
With too many tabs open, may even occassionally hang.
But it’s trying its best.

Here’s a fact: This laptop is a laptop. Which means it does not have a replaceable CPU. Which means it can only be replaced for a new one.

But here’s a bigger fact: You are not a laptop.
Your brain is not fixed.
You can change it.

Your body replaces itself almost every year.
You can change your body.

Your lifestyle isn’t fixed, no matter how trapped you are.
Your tiniest of changes can make the biggest of differences.

You are not a laptop.
Don’t live your life like one.

Emotions

The silent anger

There’s a wonderful woman I know of, who is living her life for a great social cause. She’s been doing this for the last thirty years, started at the age of seventeen.

She doesn’t get angry.
Always works to uplift people.
Cooks great food for them.
Listens to their problems.
Offers solutions.

All epic. Super-commendable.

But I can often sense hidden anger within her. Because the people she serves don’t live up to her standards.

That’s sad.

Because no one is going to live their lives as we suggest them to be, no matter how much good that suggestion holds.
As a matter of fact, if we force them, they might grow even more resistant.

The key is acceptance. And that is the entire journey all about. Acceptance that we can only guide them and bless them, everyone takes their own sweet time to get to a place of change.

Till then, they need our blessings.

The silent anger causes greater resistance.
And loss of trust.

Career, Emotions, Family, Happiness, Knowing Yourself, Life, Success, Thoughts, Truth be told, Uncategorized

To those who have failed in CA exams…

19th January 2015.
The day I became a Chartered Accountant.
I still vividly remember the day.

We had just returned to Kota (my hometown) after an overnight train trip from Mumbai, after attending a family function there for three days. So the winter was a harsh reality from the pleasant zero winter of Mumbai to being back to Kota. Because of this train journey, I had taken a shower quite late, around 10-11 am.

The moment I came out, I saw a miss call from a fellow article at the firm I did my articleship from.

Oops, my heart started pounding.

As I called him back, he picked up the call and asked: “Kya hua?”

“Result aa gaya?” was my surprised response, to which he said yes.

My mom had gone to take shower and I was virtually alone at home. So I opened up the laptop, connected it to the slow BSNL router we had and checked the result.

452 out of 800, result: PASS. (*Top 100 scorers in India then)

Wow!

The day I will never forget!

Throughout the day I did not feel cold at all despite returning from Mumbai back to shivering winters of Kota. It was in the evening that I finally realised I should be feeling cold 🙂

My mom came out of shower and started crying a lot. A lot. She basically missed my Nanaji for whom I was a source of pride and who had passed away eleven months back. The day was something me and my parents had been waiting for, for years!

But this is the success story. That I cleared CA Final (both groups together) in the first attempt that too with very good marks.

Here is the back story: I failed in IPCC twice. As on date, given the number of failures we get to face, this doesn’t seem huge.
Back then it was. Especially for a class topper like me since childhood, who ended up with this major jolt for the first time in my life.

You know what, my Mom cried then as well, for how could such a thing happen to me? (Yes now I know that I was responsible, but I just couldn’t convince her to see that part. Maybe I didn’t want to see that either!)

But I did clear the IPCC exam eventually. One group at a time.

That is the word you need to remember my fellow CA students: eventually.

The world isn’t going to be smooth even if you clear all three stages in the first attempt with AIR 1. It’s true that social media is not going to have your pictures when you fail.
It’s true that your neighbours will probably stare at you when you’ll leave home for coaching classes.
It’s perhaps true that a friend who was not expected to clear is a CA today and you aren’t!

All this is real pain.
And it hurts, especially if you worked hard.

But there is one more thing that is real: Your grit. Your persistence. Your belief in your capability that no matter what, you will end up with the prefix CA before your name eventually.

Feel sad as hard as you want to. Clean your nose with your sweater that your friend likes who is a CA now. Look at yourself in the mirror and just be, it’s okay!

But when you are done, don’t waste a minute pondering about what was and what could be. Just focus on what you are going to do next.

Winning in life is less about numbers and more about your attitude.

For example, I’m not a cunning person and because of that I sometimes get walked over (sometimes by my hashtag friends), and that feels very bad. But then I tell myself that my systems and ethics are powerful, so I needn’t be scared. NEVER ever has been a place in my life that because of not being cunning, rather being a simple human being, I hadn’t won eventually. Things always turn out to be in the favour of the person who works hard with the rights systems and the right mindsets.

And if you are worried about number of attempts, yes I did get a bonus of 1L INR extra back in 2015-16 because of being a first attempt passout. But today, 5-6 years down the line, almost everyone is earning in the same income range. Time is a great leveller and a wonderful thing to forget.

So keep up your spirits high my fellow CA students, it is only a matter of time that you will become a member of the reputed ICAI. Till then, focus on building systems and attitudes that eventually and undoubtedly lead to success, instead of letting things happen.

PS: In case you are wondering if I used some systems while preparing for CA Final exams after failing in IPCC twice, of course I did! I won’t blabber them here because the purpose of this blog is not to show you how, the purpose is to show you what. If you need help with systems and processes while preparing for CA exams, drop me a note at ngehija454@gmail.com and I’d be happy to help you out.

PPS: It will happen, eventually!

Happiness, Knowing Yourself

Immunity against relatives

My mom informed me this afternoon, that she will be going to visit a relative’s place in the evening.

I was like, sure.

In a moment I added, “You love yourself, right?”

“What’s up with you all of a sudden,” she quipped.

I said then since those relatives squeeze the energy out of you, can you watch one video of BK Shivani on YouTube before going and one after returning? Please?

She agreed to do so, however, I don’t know what would her mindset look like.

I feel sad for her. Just like a Mom would feel sad for her kid going into bad company yet finding it difficult for her to convince him not to go.

Good wisdom is like immunity. We don’t realise its importance unless a pandemic arrives and doesn’t touch us despite hanging around Covid patients, because we had inner immunity. To make it last forever, we need to keep building it daily.

Knowing Yourself, People, Self Love, Truth be told

Ooo, that was rude!

Someone said something mean to you. Someone dear to you.

A friend asked you to work for free for them, something for which you charge in six figures.

You did your 150% in a job and still your manager found flaws in your work.

All these things seem mean. And they are, undoubtedly.
The one on the other side has taken an extreme position without thinking of what you are going through or what efforts you would have put in.

They shouldn’t have done this. I understand.

However, the reality of life is that people will continue doing things or saying things that are mean or not tilted in our favour. That has been happening since eternity and will continue happening.

Will you allow yourself to be hurt every single time?
Will you allow them to take your mental space every single time?
Will you never show compassion towards yourself like you show towards others?

My friend, you are so powerful that you can bless even those who not only say mean things, rather are conspiring against you. Just don’t allow that trash to be accumulated in your mind and see the difference!

It will take hard work. It will require patience. It will ask you to be the best of yourself.
But being the worst version of yourself by getting affected wasn’t the best way to live your life either! Isn’t it?