Life is like that

No loss here, always a gain,

Life is like that, such a game!

You fight, you race, you whinge, you escape,

Fighting the battle within, there is no one to relate!

You win the lesson on losing the game,

You get the courage when left alone and insane,

The truth unfolds, when the soul departs in vain,

You find a way, when there is no hope no ray,

The sweat the blood, the hurt and the pain

Diamond is polished by the dust of its rain!

O Life is like that, such a game!

 - Rakesh

Stage Fear!

Perhaps the biggest gap in the world is whats being said and whats being done. Perhaps its between what is being "known" and what has been "experienced"!

Like everyone else, I have seen many speakers speaking in front of a big crowd flawlessly and wondered whether they are superhuman or what! How do they achieve such a comfort level in delivering a speech!

Preparation always precedes the delivery and execution, that is true! However, there is one very important ingredient which is required in becoming better at anything and destroying any Fear! That is - " Experience the very Fear you are afraid of, and soon it will be reveled to you that the Fear is not Real! "

In my school days, I used to participate in many extra curriculum activities which included speaking on the stage! My father is an excellent public speaker. The required courage of standing on the dais and speak the speech - both were provided by my father! It is true that a child's mind is like a wet cement floor - once you write something on it in early years, it remains like a blue print! However, the so called civilized society, which is full of conditioned mind will not miss any chance of implanting their perceived fear on you as you grow up and you tend to believe it unconsciously! After the early school days I did not participate much in public speaking! Coming to foreign land after the graduation where everything was an alien added an extra fear!

I believe, sharing is one of the greatest powers we humans have and choosing to share what you have has a potential of transforming your mere existence into a legacy! The more you give, the more you actually have and the more you live - I truly believe!

I had to realize that speaking in front of groups and masses have more impact in spreading your ideas, experiences and love! However, it is not an easy deal until and unless we start experiencing the public speaking!

Recently, I got such an opportunity during my Sydney visit where I had participated in Global E-commerce Seminar. People from various backgrounds interested in the field of e-commerce, internet entrepreneurship and networking were gathered! It was a small hosting session with one of my good friends and a business partners! It was a "Wow" moment when I faced an audience of nearly 1000 in numbers! The spot light coming on you almost makes you blind and still you have to manage that cool and calmness! I have learned few things which follows as under:

1. Being on stage means being in the very present - in the Now. The more you are in "Now", the more you connect with people!
2. Feel the audiences as you own them and they are yours!
3. Feel that you worth million bucks when on stage!
4. Keep an attitude of "expressing" rather than "impressing"
5. Remember your "Why" and the "Emotion" behind your why!
6. Have Fun :)

After that experience, I realized that the best way to help overcome fear and rapidly develop courage and self-confidence is by speaking before groups! When we lose the fear of talking to audiences, we lose the fear of speaking to individuals, no matter how big and important they are!

Looking forward to more of such experiences!

Love,
Rakesh

Today just the "Thank you"

To all those lovely people who have influenced me positively and have been my companion on this blog journey, I owe you big big THANK YOU!

Today just the Thank you,

To you, To you and there To you,

Thank you because you have been there,

In thick and thin,

You have been there when air was wind, in the direction not so keen,

Thank you to those eyes which kept an eye on my deeds,

on this and that and many more things,

Thank you for the motivation, for hope, for courage,

for appreciation and pouring the breath of win,

Today is just that THANK YOU that I hope gets seen!

Lots of love,

Rakesh

The Infinite Rain...!

In the pursuit of finding answers, my questions were pilling up. Some questions would get answered along the way and some stayed unanswered though the journey never stopped. An answer to a particular question at certain phase of my life seemed like a dot, but now these dots were connecting and were making a sensible line. A line which can be phrased. The question that kept coming to me was " Whats the difference between those people who are their own best friends and those who are their own enemies knowingly or un-knowingly?"

While reading some books, particularly "Life Leaves Clues by Bryan Thayer", I came across something which I could relate to an incident that happened in my life.  It acted almost as a last dot to complete the line or phrase which could answer the above question.

It was during my visit back home in India. Even-though the monsoon season was not yet started, the sky poured unexpectedly in the month of April. Like everyone else I was not prepared for this and had to run to the closest shelter to avoid getting wet. I saw people running to that shelter quickly. I heard people talking various things. Some discussed global warming being the possible cause, someone commented about what would be the situation of roads and traffic due to rain, someone was worried about his brand new leather shoes and a man throwing tantrum on his woman for not bringing umbrella. A young boy standing next to me seemed quite serious, he was heavily occupied in arranging his wet wallet into a plastic beg and trying to dry his wet 50 Rs note. I realized no one was actually paying attention to the rain. Meanwhile, I saw one gentleman walking towards the shelter. He was wearing specs and his one hand was covering his forehead to avoid getting rain drops on his specs and face, but with the other hand he was holding his cute little daughter. The only difference was, the little girl's hand was not covering her head - instead it was open - palm facing the sky. They came and stood next to me, I moved a little, closer to the Money Drying Machine guy ( I should have given him some of my notes too to dry! :P). I saw that the little girl was collecting water in her hand and drinking it again and again, sometime she would collect water in her hand and throw it to her face. Suddenly, she asked her dad - " Daddy, why doesn't it rain everyday?". Occupied in his mobile, her dad answered - yes dear, it will tomorrow, it will. She went back to her play and after sometime asked again " Dad why doesn't it rain everyday?". This time there was no answer. There was just Silence. But that day I got my answer. I got the answer about the differences between those who are their best friends and those who are not!

The rain falls on all of us equally. It doesn't discriminate between rich or poor, taller or shorter, male or female, black or white. Same way, there is this infinite power or energy, or consciousness, or higher-self, or god or whichever term you want to use to refer to, continuously showers upon us. It is that power because of which we all are alive and because of which all concepts exist. It is there for everyone, just like this rain. The only difference is some people have their hands up covering themselves from it while others have their hands open receiving it. They collect and drink it and let it go inside. Those who cover their head don't let it go inside, the power - the infinite rain just touches them and passes away. But the beauty is we all know how to bring our hands from up there to down in receiving mode. If you remember, by default, our hands were always in receiving mode when we were kid. We all were asking so many questions and seeking answers then. As we grew up, we stopped asking questions and accepted the life as it comes. Some people's hand went up in covering mode while few kept their hands in the same position like that little kid. Today, we call them successful people or people who are their own best friends. Successful people are not an extra ordinary people, they are just ordinary people with extra ordinary questions. Just like that little kid, they have the questions, lots of questions, but they seek the answers too and embark on their pursuit.

Just pause, ask the right questions, answers will appear. Connect those dots and line will appear.


Love,

Rakesh