The New Year Resolution Gimmick!

Ideally, this blog should have come on the 1^st week of the year, as that happens to be the week of making and breaking the resolutions for the year ahead but thankfully I never made any such resolution to pen this down on the 1^st week itself. So I am yet to be convicted for resolution breaking crime for the year. But that is what usually happens when it comes to making resolutions and adhering to it for the entire year and in turn keeps most of the people away from this ‘resolution of the year’ gimmick. No doubt the most popular resolution of the year across the globe happens to be ‘ to not make any resolutions this year. Albeit, the safest and easiest resolution one can think ofJ.

And the second most popular resolution being ‘ to lose x kgs of weight this year’. This though, also happens to be the most frequently violated resolution of all times. My wife, however, terms this resolution business as stupidity and people like me who indulge into this as kid dish and immature. But these views (like many of her other views), hardly have any bearing on my actions. That said I have been into this resolution making, keeping and breaking business for a long time now. The much enlightened and learned people like my wife find it a futile pursuit but I have always enjoyed making my own resolutions (writing a blog every week, going for a minimum 2 vacations in the year, restraining from junk food, staying fit through regular workout etc.) at the beginning of every year and tried my best to pursue it throughout the year. At times without much success but mostly successfully. I feel these self-made challenges makes our routine life some-what exciting, tad more interesting and gives us opportunities to learn or improve upon any good habits.

Like every year I have a list ready for this year too with a sense of hope and excitement to fulfil most of these items in next eleven odd months –

-          Resolution 1: To write at least 2 blogs every month – the least I can do for my love of writing and so far I am bang on target for this oneJ

-          Resolution 2: To explore the world of sea food – have restrained from doing so for last 15 years but have already taken a plunge into this one last week by tasting a sumptuous konkan fried fish and trust me it promises to be an interesting year ahead on this frontJ

-          Resolution 3: To not indulge into any unnecessary arguments or wittily mocking anyone – An important clarification - this hasn’t been enforced on me by my wify and is supposedly expected to be applied outside the boundaries of our house tooJ

-          Resolution 4: To read at least 12 good books this year – That makes it a minimum of 1 for every month and I am already lagging behind on this 1, with January already behind meL

-          Resolution 5: To gift something really good to my wife – The toughest, most improbable but highest on the priority list. I am due big time on this one and I feel it’s prudent now to pay this one off in the interest of my long term happinessJ

So these set of resolutions will not only have a huge bearing on my mind throughout the year but will also impact people around me, hopefully for good. And the public declaration makes it even more challenging, interesting and all the more compelling for me to achieve most of what I have thought of. But the driving force behind this entire exercise is the gratification that one gets on achieving even a semblance of what has been targeted, it’s truly a priceless feeling! So I really hope that I achieve most of what I have targeted for, because there would surely be periodic checkpoints throughout the year on some of these, at homeJ

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Idea of a good life!

Every morning we at office have this habit of going for a tea just outside our office premises which is complemented by our usual office chit chat, gossiping and a dose of career centric cribbing. But yesterday I was taken aback, when during our tea outing one of my colleague asked me – ‘ So what is your idea of a good life?’ Taken aback, not just because I had to actually think through before answering but also because we hardly get into such off the track and rather philosophical discussions in officeJ.

Nevertheless, after a momentary thoughtful pause I replied back saying that ‘for me an idea of a good life would be to make a living out of something about which I am really passionate about, something that I really enjoy doing’. With a wry smile on his face, pat came my friend’s counter question, ‘So are you passionate and in love with your job here’. This time around I replied back without any thoughtful pause, ‘Of course not, with no acknowledgement or appreciation for the slogging we do here, there is hardly any motivation to actually enjoy the work’. But even before I could finish answering, my friend pounced on me asking  - So if you get your dues in terms of timely acknowledgement and appreciations for your hard work will you start enjoying your work here and get passionate about it? I replied back saying ‘may be not passionate about it but for sure I won’t be cribbing about it as much then’. This discussion ended in sometime but without a conclusive or a convincing  answer to ‘what is your idea of a good life?’.

But somehow that question got stuck in my mind, to an extent that I started to delve on it even further. So what is that I enjoy doing in life? Most certainly writing, travelling and sports would top the chart for me. So can I make a living out of it now? Some might say I am too old to start in any of these trades professionally nowJ. And to leave a reasonably settled (albeit boring) career in IT with an added responsibility of a lovely family and not to forget two fat loans to be repaid, makes it seem all  the more unviable. Unless, I opt for the treacherous path of starting from the scratch, but that again would be a big gamble and beyond practical means.

What does one do then to overcome the routine discontentment and boredom? Understandably, to make a living out of something you love doing would need a focussed effort towards it and to start that in parallel with your current job isn’t all that easy. But if we leave aside the monetary aspect and can just rekindle our love with those activities that we enjoyed pursuing earlier in our lives, it will still make us feel rejuvenated amidst most boring of routines. For instance, a session of cricket with friends on the weekends does wonder to freshen up and relive those good old childhood days. A vacation or two every year not only gives us a golden chance to explore the world around us but also keeps us in high spirits throughout the year. Spending some time off to read an interesting book reminds us on what we have been missing for all these days and forces us to rekindle this beautiful habit of reading. Though this list of priceless nothings may vary from an individual to other but the list is endless.

So the idea of having a good life starts from our own identification of things that we love to do in life. And then to spare some time off for these things from our otherwise boring and monotonous routine. But often we fail to identify what is that we love to do in life and even if we have the realization we fail to indulge in those activities. Ironically, there are very few who actually make a living out of something they love to do in life and even fewer actually indulge in something they love doing in their lives. But the idea of a happy life is not about doing something extraordinary or out of the box, it’s just about reinventing ourselves and pursuing something that we have loved doing all our life.

Life is after all  not as hard as we perceive it to be but is rather what we make out of it!

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Aam Aadmi Party - An Ordinary Party?

What a sensational debut! Of the kinds that can even leave the most successful sportsmen, musicians or actors gasp in awe, leave apart just the politicians. Nobody, quite literally nobody, would have given Arvind Kejriwal half of what he has achieved through his baby, AAP in the Delhi assembly polls. Political opponents laughed them off at every possible opportunity, media didn’t pay much attention to their on the ground histrionics and none (except one) of the exit polls projected anything substantial against them. So to achieve what they have achieved in their first outing is not only historic but brave and commendable too. Hats off Mr Kejriwal! Well done AAP!


What is even more heart warming is the fact that whatever success or popularity they have garnered is not just due to a strong anti-incumbency wave but also because a fresh bout of progressive thought process they have brought in for the common man. They have not just campaigned asking for votes but they have also gone out of their way, deployed their time, effort and money and worked for the common to make their lives better. They have not just promised freebies and big sops in their election manifesto but have also delivered some of them soon after taking charge. No wonder people have so much faith in them now, not just in Delhi but also across the nation. Everyone wants a piece of AAP infused governance in their lives and surprisingly politics isn’t a dirty word anymore. There is huge influx of people across all walks of society queuing up to join AAP with a vision to contribute towards the betterment of our nation. Such has been their impact, such has been a sense of hope they have inculcated in a common’s man mind.

But is it actually all so rosy and meritorious with AAP, as it looks? Certainly not. But then there is nothing that is picture perfect in this world and also we do have a knack of fault finding in anything and everything, howsoever good it might be. And if we compare whatever vices AAP/Kejriwal have, it would seem minuscule in comparison to other political players in the fray. Technically, they (AAP) have just started their journey and will naturally commit lot of mistakes and take at least some time before they substantially achieve any of their stated objectives. But personally I have found some of their moves post assembly poll results as shocking, not to undermine what they have achieved so far through their good work and bravado though.

At the first place, what was the hurry to form the government? The lamest excuse or explanation for that could be to avoid a re-election and save lot of public money. But I think they would have done much better or learned far more being in the opposition than actually sitting in the government. They have anyways done a great job by winning 28 seats in their first outing, they would have only become stronger had they chosen to sit in the opposition and act as a very strong and constructive opposition instead.

Secondly, why this alliance with Congress? One may say what’s wrong in allying with any party, if the overall agenda is focussed around progressive governance. But surprising, when the very basis of the formation of their party was to free the people from the shackles of so called corrupt and ineffective Congress (& BJP) leaders. Also when, AAP’s entire poll campaign revolved around abhorring the mis-deeds of Congress leaders by virtue of innumerable scams, exorbitantly high inflation and several other failures on all fronts, it seems all the more shocking. And most surprisingly when their leader (read Kejriwal) publically swore on her daughter that come what may he will never ally with Congress, it baffles one and all beyond understanding. One political defence around this could be that every politician backtracks on lot of such things post-election results. But wasn’t Mr Kejriwal supposed to be different from current breed of politicians? Wasn’t AAP supposed to be a party with a difference? I think a Congress free governance was one of the reason why a majority of voters voted for AAP. So isn’t this a cheating of a familiar sorts? Amusingly, Kejriwal went ahead and defended his alliance stating that we never went to Congress and asked for support, they came on their own and supported us. And that I believe is one of the most immature and hilarious statements he would have given in public till date.

And then a flurry of bloopers to add to it. In the lead up to the Delhi polls Kejriwal/AAP kept on emphasizing that they have enough proofs against Sheila Dikshit to frame her for corruption as soon as they come to power. But after taking charge when the leader of opposition Mr Harshvardhan asked Mr Kejriwal to take action against the former CM, Mr Kejriwal blatantly asked Mr Harshvardhan to provide him with the proofs against her and he will act on them. So where have your erstwhile proofs (that contributed in your coming to power) gone Mr Kejriwal?

A week after the oath taking ceremony, there was a press release from AAP that they will push for more reservations in colleges and government jobs. But weren’t you preaching about meritocracy all this while before coming to power? And then why this haste in providing freebies like free water and cheap electricity? Of course, it’s a welcome change for the common man but will it not impact the overall state budget or is it just to lure the people outside of Delhi towards them and increase the enrolments before the LokSabha polls through such popular antics.

On one hand their austerity moves like coming for oath ceremony by metro rail, not taking up government bungalows and vehicles, doing away with the ‘red batti’ culture is a refreshing change for the Indian politics but some of their outrageous bloopers make them look like any other political party of the past. But it hurts in their (AAP) case because as per them the very basis of their formation was to do away with such age old back flips and short sighted populism based politics.

But with AAP’s and Kejriwal’s growing popularity across the nation one thing is for sure that AAP will have a big impact in the upcoming 2014 general elections. And the biggest loser out of this AAP phenomena would be BJP, with Congress all set to enjoy this even in their downward spiral. And the way AAP has shown no reservations in allying with Congress in Delhi, don’t be surprised if we have a re-run of a Congress led government for another 5 years. And we all know what good Congress/UPA has done to our country in the last 10 years. Not that with BJP coming to power things will be all hunky dory but at least we will have some hope and may be a semblance of satisfaction that we have done our best in not repeating our mistake by re-electing the same government against whom we have been cribbing for a long time.

So if AAP & Kejriwal can stick to what they have promised through their idealist and pleasantly surprisingly refreshing manifesto and campaigning, it will not only do a lot of good to them in the longer run but more importantly, will also do a lot of favour to the people of this country. Otherwise it will remain to be Indian politics as usual.
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