Day88: “Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.” ― Joseph Campbell

Sunday, 13 January 2013; 11:35pm

Electronic City, Bangalore

I started the day (a little late, at 9:30am) with a morning stroll and on the way, grabbed a hot cup of tea, returning with two national English dailies, the TOI and the DC (Deccan Chronicle); and I had got the read (time pass) for the day. What caught my attention was the Supplement section 'The Speaking Tree' (which comes with TOI) which I used to ignore (reading) earlier, was the (most) worthwhile read of the day. Deepak Chopra, suggesting to a Gentleman, running through an impasse in his married Life, goes on to say that, in relationships what you resist, persists. He quotes, the solution is to start negotiating, stop blaming, respect other side's position, being empathic, working from points of agreements, to listen and to learn, and not to be competitive, this is not about (who is) winning and (who is) losing, when a relationship suffers, nobody wins. Beautiful points and Lessons learnt, Sir. Thank you.

Moving on, in another article 'Kitten Sutra (under Soul Soup section), an old lady (who is a cleaning staff in the hospital) says to an extensively rich lady (who is complaining to a Psychiatrist that she feels her whole life is empty and meaningless), how she finds meaning in her life. The old lady who had lost her Husband and Child and who was about to take her own life, saw a little kitten who followed her from work. The old lady felt sorry for the kitten and decided to let the kitten in, in the cold winter. She offered her milk and the kitten licked the plate clean, purring and rubbing against the old lady's leg, after which the lady started smiling. She then thought, if helping a little kitten can make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy. Everyday she tried to do something nice for someone, seeing other people happy, made her happier. The old lady goes on to say that "Today, I do not know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do". Hearing this, the rich lady cried. The morale of the story is, it is not money that can buy everything but the attitude towards life, how you find meaning in your life.

Another beautiful article on 'Happiness Mantra', re-iterated, it is the individual (and not anyone else in the world) upto which the basic underlying decision to 'be happy' or 'not to be happy' lies.

Here's wishing you a Very Happy Makar Sankranti and Pongal!!

Calling it a day, Good Night Friends!!

Narendra Gupta

12:05am