Crazy About Shopping? (not an aggressive write-up, but a light alarm!)

Crazy about Shopping? Read on..

If you speak to people above sixty in India,most of them will agree that Indian households never used to hold anything more than what is necessary. Scenario has changed these days. There are more dresses unused than the used ones, in the wardrobes. There are just too many toys for kids, too many footwears, more no of mobile phones than the no of people who use them, too many electric appliances. Too many products to maintain the house, many more to maintain our own beauty, more food items found wasted in every household, and the list goes on. (There are of course exceptions, I am talking about new generation of workforce, having decently or
highly paid professions and living in cities).

What’s bringing such a high sweep of shopping craze?

Isn’t it true that we most often end up buying things that get used for few days or even lesser? These are the answers I find. When we enter a supermarket or a mall, things are so easily accessible and beautifully laid that we tend to buy things just for the fun of it. There are many tricks used by supermarkets to get their things sold. Then the availability of plastic money, leaves us with no reason of having no cash to buy something. We can take so much on credit using credit cards after all. Shopping has become much more easier with our e-shopping.

Of course all supermarkets, our cards, e-shopping etc are a great help for necessary shopping, in our busy lives. But, there are things to be cautious about. Such shopping not only plays heavy on your pockets, but also clutters your households. Most of your free time that can be given to important things and people in your life, will go away in uncluttering or cleaning stuffs out. Most of us repent only when we fall short of funds for something important. And more importantly,
mindless shopping ultimately creates much more garbage than we can imagine. We will just end up harming our environment more.

I am trying to get more frugal in many ways possible.Go green, start with small steps. Whenever you plan to buy things, make a list and delay buying those things, which are not very urgently required and whose utility you are not sure about. When you go through the list again down few months, you will find most of them unnecessary. Try to reuse things and try to buy more reusable, recyclable things. There’s so much we can do to help ourselves and the surroundings.

Points to be noted:

*Avoid impulsive buying.

*When you buy, buy quality products that last long.

*Buy more reusable stuff than the disposables.

*Try to buy stuff that can be recycled.

HAPPY MINDFUL SHOPPING!

Just when you are sure you have got all answers to all the questions, God changes the question paper! THATS LIFE!

"Just when you think & feel you have got all the answers to all the questions in your life, God changes the question paper itself!" - Thats life in one statement.

I know most of you are into introspection, with the very first reading of this statement, thats what happened to me, when I first spoke out this statement to few of my colleagues. A very powerful feeling, that this is so true about life. Majority of us, work really hard to shape up an easier life, a comfortable life, wherein we can reach a state where we can pamper ourselves continuously, and we never seem to reach there. Each time we think we have resolved every issue and there are no more answers we need to seek, any more the boat of life shall sail smooth, very next moment is turbulence in the ocean of life, high tides, disturbing waves and we need to be prepared for it.

It happened a number of times in my life, until I reached my 10th Class, I always thought I would go on to become a CA, after 10th I fell in love with science, universe, physics, etc. then I started dreaming of being a theoretical physicist. Studied everything I could within 12th itself, upto partial differential equations, everything in depth about quantum mechanics to the extent of understanding of the present research going on. A concept slightly difficult to percieve and understand. It involves everything thats vague and ambiguous.

Targetted IIT Mumbai - MSc Physics course. Got through IIT-JEE screening round, could not crack mains (another failure of my life). Ended up at NITK Surathkal in Mechanical engineering deciding to become the best mechanical engineer. Felt glad that Mech. Engg was closely related to Physics. But by the time I finish my first year of engineering and master further concepts of engineering and physics, the entreprenuership bug caught me.

First time something in my life, had touched which gave me a feeling, its possible to make every dream a reality if you can stand, truly, for what you want. Just endlessly keep your purpose in mind and it shall materialise. Be prepared for challenges at every step and be very flexible if your path takes a turn, but keep purpose in mind.

Today am learning accounts to handle my business (slowly but surely, (dream of becoming a CA)), keeping in pace with physics to ensure I study physics after 5-6 years from today, An inspirational Speaker by profession, inspiring people. A programmer, because I fell in love with programming in my engineering. Atleast, today I can code in my own sites. Upcoming author with the challenge of releasing my first book in another 8 months, MBA aspirant(scored 94% in trial attempt in CAT last november). A strong network marketer today promoting the vision of computer literacy and standing for this cause. Serving the society by shaping up leaders who can take this task further & building a team of inspirational speakers.

Each time at every step when I felt I have got my answers, for the questions "WHO AM I?" life showed a new route, deviating from my dreams, taking a complete detour, but actually each time, eventually, every detour met my PURPOSE HIGHWAY.

So here I stand today as still a person seeking answers to new set of questions, which never were mine. Hence, I conclude - "BE PREPARED!" are the keywords for progress in life. Keep yourself prepared and be willing to change and adapt quickly to changing cirmstances and needs of life and you will see every dream of yours will turn into reality and every detour will lead to your eventual dream destination.

Life will show you unexpected changes and detours to test how strongly you can stand for what you want. Keep walking and walk boldly towards your dream. Everything under the sky is possible. "Impossible belongs to another universe, where men dont live, god does not bless and dreams dont exist!" ~ Sujit Lalwani. I request you not to belong to that universe.

KEEP DREAMING & KEEP ACHIEVING! (BE PREPARED!)...

KEEP COMMENTING! (empty comments column are a detour, which expect you to reach them).

["Question paper keeps changing, let not our dreams change!" answer happily with full confidence!]

Right kind of Lighting matters - In buildings, In life and In Selling!!!

You R Reader No.


It was a fine evening after a good days work, when I decided to spend sometime building my dreams list, So had been to UB City. A truly Royal Construction for truly Royal People. The place is just too royal. All credits to the architects and big dreamer behind this - "THE VIJAY MALLYA - The king of good times:-)."

The entrance will leave you spellbound. The lighting at this place inside is complete mix of mild yellow, light orange, cream & Magenta. The bright yellow glow on the wall, fading into dull orange is simply something, that leaves your subconscious mind into a state of total bliss. Its an experience that will leave your neurons excited for days, for you will have to recall the visit over and over again to narrate it to others.

But beyond this beauty was an observation. The top floor of this place is an exuberant place with brilliance and beauty spilled over scenic beauty, that it has got to offer to the visitors. The place is an open place facing tall (tall for bangalore heights of buildings) skyline of bangalore. The place also faces one part of its structure, which is the central building of this UB City.



The observation taught a lesson which has left me pondering for 24 hours already and am yet pondering. The building had a wall - really tall one - the bottom end of it had a light being projected on it at an angle. It was light cement colored wall, but the light being projected was light blue in shade. There were other walls parallel to it, which were of same original wall color. The observation was simple, the colored wall added all the beauty to the building. The walls were of simple cement color, but the light on the wall projected at the right angle gave a brilliant look to it, which made it carry an elegance that would attract the attention of any individual who looked at it, and leave him pleased.

What I learnt are the lessons which follow :

1. A simple dull colored wall is something that pleases none, but when a small light bulb even at the bottom end of it, throws light at the right angle and color, gives it a pleasing look. Hence our life is dull or beautiful by the way we throw light on our past collection of memories (imagine present and birth being two end points of the straight line called past. If you throw light form present to the past - highest intensity will be at recent past and least as you go behind in the past.) If you throw light at the right angle and of right color on your past, your life lived, will become extremely pleasing to anyone, who gets to learn about.

Every individual can write the bestseller autobiography, provided he throws light of right color at right angle, recalls the best memories, the lessons of life and people who made a difference. One more thing I could learn was - Life would seem dull to live further if you dont make an effort to light it up well, is what the other parallel walls taught me.

2. <In marketing - Product is not the only reason why the customer would buy or not (for nobody tries to manufacture and sell a bad product), Its how you throw light at your product and carry forward your presentation and light up your product with right colored light that matters to get you the sale. If you throw light on the benefits of your product well, and list all the reasons why the customer would enjoy possessing your product, he would sure not think twice shelling out all the money required for your product without feeling a hole in his pocket. It would add to your efforts of lighting up your presentation, if you just ensure that the light you project is of the color, that is most pleasing to your customer's eye. You need'nt be a mind reader for this, a few good questions to understand your guest(customer) would serve a great deal.

I am still pondering for scratching out more lessons. But one more lesson i learnt is you dont need books to teach you really big lessons in life, You just need to be a great observer and have an urge to learn. You have lessons all around you.

For, a mountain is a hurdle for someone, its the way to reach the top for others.

The article is open to comments and space goolge gives can take loads of them, so feel free to key them down here.