Rule# 103

If someday you find all these rules and norms around too academic, my only suggestion for you would be – ‘go for a walk’. Yes, just get going, switch off your phone, no music, nothing. Just walk, walk in streets, in parks, in crowd, anywhere just walk.

103) Drink lots of water and just WALK.

Rule# 102

If one day you find your trousers are sliding down your waist and you need a belt to keep it in right place, then there is a good possibility that your ‘paunch’ is getting rounder and pushing your pants down with every breath. 

102)  Keep your paunch in check.

Rule# 101

By lamenting over past or worrying about future keeps on robbing our present, which kills the future and soon becomes past.

101) Remember,  Anxiety about future and regrets of past are the WORST enemies of the present.

Rule# 100

Yo, you know whether you like it or not, but you are basically STUCK between your mom and I.
I always say, kids are always a weird amalgam of their parents, one day you look like me and other day like your mom; one day you behave like me and other day like your mom and it is an unending cycle.
It is such strange, weird and beautiful feeling to witness all this with you, sometimes you are so shy and reserved, sometimes you (used to) go and say hello to random people on street.  When go super quiet and shy I see myself in you, it feels good but at the same time I don’t want you to be like that. It’s ok to be like that for small period but I’m afraid if you prolong it then you’ll miss all the fun.
It’s always like a battle between your inner introvert and extrovert, and these days introvert is holding an edge.

So here comes the next rule –

100) Though I don’t want to force you to be someone you are not but keep your phases short and be an ‘ambivert’ :-)

Rule# 99)

You know Gudda, this might sound awkward to most of people, but with all my years of experience I want to share one of my observation about Laxmi Maiyaa.

Most important thing for Laxmi Maiyaa is ‘Respect’; yes RESPECT, just look around, all kinds of people – corrupt bureaucrats , or politicians or bad people, all kind of characters loaded with tons of money. Laxmi Maiyaa doesn’t distinguishes between ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of heart of a person, it treats all of them uniformly, but if someone disrespects HER or thinks he owns HER then Laxmi Maiyaa finds ways to leave.

Here’s next rule for you –

99) Always respect Laxmi Maiyaa.

Template

Standard template for conversations ..... :-)

blahh blahh ....Traffic-vraffic....Shortcuts-wortcuts..against-traffic.....Houseprices-wrices blahh blahh.....Stocks-vstocks....blah blah...Mergers-vergers...Startups-startups....Shares-vares....Nasqdaq-wasdaq.......Espp-vssp...blahh blahhh ....Layoffs-wayoffs......Hilary-wilary.......Obama-wobama...blahh blahhh.....Elections-wilections ...Modi-vodi....AAP-WAAP.....blah blahh hahahaha.....Isis –ysis ....syria-wiriya.....Oil-woil
bahhh....

Rule# 98

               One must run/walk 3 miles a day to remain in good shape, 5 miles is even better; whether you do it or not but what most matters is the ‘2 feet’ distance between your plate and mouth, if you can conquer that then half the battle is won; and trust me that’s not as easy as it sounds.

So here’s another rule (almost same as rule # 81 ) –

98) Remember this ‘2 feet’ rule always.

Rule# 97)

97) If right things are not happening to you, then obviously you are not doing the right things :-)

मैंने कभी गाँव नहीं देखा

मैंने कभी गाँव नहीं देखा....

जब रात station पे  उतर के तांगे से अम्माँ के घर जाते होंगे
तोह शायद दूर जंगल में जुगनू दिखते होंगे

या फिर दिन में बस अड्डे से बाहर रिक्शे से जाते होंगे अम्माँ के घर
और जब रुक रुक कर रिक्शा बाज़ार से गुज़रता होगा
पापा बीच रास्ते में किसी पुराने दोस्त से मिलने उतर जाते  होंगे

अम्माँ भी हमारे लिए कुछ ख़ास बनाती होगी
मोहल्ले भर को इकट्ठा कर 'हमें ' दिखाती  होगी

मम्मी भी एक दम से बदल सी जाती होगी
सामान कमरे में रख कर, सर ढक कर
मोहल्ले भर के पैर छू कर
अम्मा का हाथ बटाती होगी

शायद चूल्हा अम्माँ का आँगन में ही होगा
वही हमें बिठा कर, हमे 'देखते' हुए खाना खिलाती होंगी। ।
और भगवान ही जाने भगवान से क्या-क्या बुदबुदाती होगी।

और नेहरू-टोपी पहने बाबा भी चौपाल से घर आ जाते होंगे
शायद हुक्का पीते-पीते खासते भी होंगे
बस दूर से हम सब को देख कर, हमारी बातों पर  मुस्कुराते होंगे !!!

मैंने कभी बाबा को नहीं देखा …… 

Rule# 96

96) If you are more excited about 4-day work-week after a 3-day long weekend then it is time to change your job.

Rule# 95)

Dear son

Lately, I’ve been trying to formulate my thoughts around this topic, but it’s just not happening and reason is precisely linked with what I’m going to say next.

As I’m getting older and wiser (your mom will disagree but at least I would like to think so ), more I meet people more I get convinced that “successful” people are not brightest ones or gifted ones, but successful ones are those who live their lives in a straight-line. That is, they have a goal and they constantly make efforts to move towards it. And that is somewhat I lack majorly, my thoughts, my actions, plans, ideas, implementations are all scattered all over the place.

Moving in straight line comes easier and natural to some, but for some like me it is tough. 
That paves the way for next rule.

95) First 30-45 minutes right after you wake up are very crucial in shaping rest of your day. Use these 30-45 minutes to prepare a list of 3 most important things you want to accomplish in the day.

Rule# 94

94) If you wake up thinking that today is going to be a ‘wonderful’ day, it may or may not turn out that way; but if you wake up thinking it is going to an awful day, then trust me you won’t be disappointed.

Rule# 93)

Struggle is inevitable, struggle makes one eminent. 

We all are born to struggle, but struggle in a positive way. We all need to struggle to become better with each and every passing moment. 

Live every moment, learn every moment, everything you do, do it with full determination with an intention of helping everyone around you. And most importantly –

93) Enjoy the struggle.

बेबसी है , तन्हाई है , बेक़रारी है 

दिन कटा नहीं काटा है 

रात गुज़री नहीं गुज़ारी है 

दिल डूबता है और सांस भारी है 

जिए जाने की रसम जारी है 

दिन कटा नहीं काटा है 

रात गुज़री नहीं गुज़ारी है 

Rule# 92

92) Make someone fall in trust with you.

World Cup Cricket 2015 - INDIA's journey

So finally, world cup ended, at least for India, so ek post toh banti hai.

I would not call India’s journey in it as an interesting or boring, but definitely would call it weird.

Let me try to explain why I’m calling it a weird journey –

1. After pathetic performance in the preceding test series and ODI tri-series who would have imagined them to reach the semi-finals and how.
2. Ask yourself, how confident were you when India played Pakistan in the opener;
3. And confess it, despite win against Pakistan, we totally made peace with the fact that we’ll be thrashed left, right and center by South Africa in next one.
4. Beating South Africa at their own game, i.e. making good use of large MCG by rotating strike, by converting ones into twos, and running out two of their key players, was not less than a miracle; and in their next game while watching ABVD thrashing WI we truly believed Mohit Sharma should have been given MoM just for his throw which ran out ABVD.
5. Then came WI, we lost 6 wickets in chasing 180+ runs, we won mostly because of some sensible batting by Dhoni n Ashwin, and some senseless captaincy by Holder.
6. UAE game does not count at all.
7. Zimbabwe, Ireland gave some serious scare, especially Taylor’s hitting and Irish opener’s stand. Our bowling looked pedestrian and clueless.
8. Then came, QF against B’desh – again it was a serious affair; B’desh was riding high on Mahmudullah’s  back to back 100’s and Soumya Sarkar’s Ganguly like flair; they did exceedingly well against England and New Zealand. In QF, we were not 100% sure of the win, it was a pretty even game till one point, India barely managed to win some crucial periods of play (or B’desh lost due to their inexperience and enormity of the situation) and hence the game.

So with all that 70/70, 7-0, and 11 consecutive WC wins hype, we faced the not-so-formidable hosts Australia; though it warrants a post on itself, but I’ll not go in detail, will not bore myself with my own over analysis.

So what went wrong after ‘such-a-strong-showing’?

In reality, nothing new happened, we failed because we failed to acknowledge our problems, or address our problems; in simple straight forward terms we lost because –

1. Even after spending 4/5 months in Australia, we still don’t know what to do with STEVE SMITH.
2. We still don’t know how to blow away the tail-enders.
3. Our tail-enders still don’t know how to hold their ground against a quality opposition.

At one point, when Smith n Maxwell were pummeling everything out of park, score of 370+ seems inevitable, then sudden 3 wicket collapse (Smith/Maxwell/Finch) brought India back in game but we lost the plot thereon, we allowed shoddy and out of form Watson to survive, we allowed Clark to free is arms now and then, even till then score looked manageable, but we committed biggest folly by allowing Faulkner some free runs and finally letting Johnson score 27 off just 9 balls. Such complacency is inexcusable. All the late flourish shifted the whole momentum.

We started the chase well, Rohit and Dhawan had their share of luck early which was again a good omen, but when you’re chasing 325+ you tend to overdo things; with 70+ runs onboard with healthy 6+ RR, again casualness in approach creeped in;

Dhawan’s dismissal is a prime example of that, may be got bored or what, he tried something stupid out of curiosity and picked the only man parked in the deep. Boredom.

Kohli weighed himself down with expectation of whole team and country, he started with out-of-character extremely cautious approach and played a maiden over.

And in very next over, he suddenly realized he is 'THE KOHLI' and he needs to exude that and try to dominate Johnson. As a result he played an expensive shot which was not there. Overconfidence.

Rohit was best at being Rohit, scored an effortless 6 and got bowled effortlessly next ball. Casualness.

Let’s not get more into it, but before I stop, one last thing, Dhoni is not a magician; he cannot think for every guy; he needs a stronger supporting cast during ‘strategizing’ he alone cannot do it all. He needs better support from guys like Raina/Ashwin/Kohli/Jadeja. 

And guys like Jadeja need to rise themselves, they have talent, they should NOT be content with their current situation; Steve Smith and Maxwell are prime example, how these guys raised their games season after season and became best batsman after starting their career at no. 7/8.

Anyways, finally the weirdness has ended; started with low expectations, and reached unreasonably higher expectations, and crashed down expectedly but crashed down in a manner that made it look unacceptable.

Hopefully, guys will learn from this roller coaster experience and will become better in the times to come.

Rule# 91

Build Character.
There is no single way to build it, there is no one-time or single thing that needs to done for this.
It is about everything you do; all small things, such as giving full attention to whoever you’re interacting with, like keeping your promises (even made in a lighter vein) even though others forget about it or don’t remain as important for them. Become dependable and trustworthy. Seek excellence in whatever you do.

You must be thinking by now, ‘what’s new about this?’ 
Agreed, it’s all simple stuff but it is the simple stuff that we tend to overlook the most.

So, here’s next rule my son.

91) Build Character.

Rule# 90

90)  Whatever, whatever whatever, you have no right to belittle anyone. Always be humble, and respectful.

Rule# 89

Day-light saving start/end always disrupts my schedule, thankfully it happens over weekend so becomes manageable; but when month changes over weekend, it seriously throws my mind in chaos.

89) Be wary of month change happening over weekend.

Rule# 88

88) Seek out your next challenge, only overcoming challenges changes us.

Right after I wrote this, something happened in my head, and I delved deeper to find why I wrote this.

So, (in my case at least) what happens is when you reveal your fears to people who are close to you, and in most of the cases they accept you ‘along with your fears’ and that very moment ‘those fears’ become permanent in your mind.

All this sounds pretty normal and harmless, even sounds good that close friends accepting your fears and flaws, but it also does a damage which can go a long way. So if someone confides their fears to you then definitely respect them but not in a way that they makes them stay that way (i.e. live with their fears forever) but in a way that encourages them to face and overcome them.

And when you are the one with fears then only way out is to face them.

Rule# 87

Whenever in doubt, dilemma confusion over a decision.
Consider these 3 options–
1) Do what is best for your child; without any compromise.
2) Decide, if doing this will make my parents proud or ashamed of me.
3) Do what is in everyone’s interest,is  practical and is cost-effective.

After considering these 3 options –

87) Do what your wife says :-)

Rule# 86

Its same time of the year when people make resolutions that last for on-average 3 weeks most. 
I’ll talk about something that has been troubling me for years now, by the end of this post hope that ‘troubling’ usage will make sense.

So what really keeps people motivated to stick to their resolutions or side tracking from them?
Some don’t make their resolutions public, and work secretly on them and at some point the will to carry out fades away, and since know no one really knew about it, so it becomes quite acceptable in the head to go lenient with them and eventually shun them. That was pretty straightforward.

Now, let’s talk about the people who publically declare their resolutions or confide them to a select group or person(s).
For some disclosing resolutions make them work hard towards achieving their goals, and ( this is the fun (or troubling) part) for some disclosing resolutions have an exact OPPOSITE reaction, the moment they declare their intentions, their plans, their future course of actions , at that very moment their brain gets some sort of signals of accomplishments or fulfilment. And they STOP right there. 
Unfortunately, I belong to later group, who chalk out a detailed strategy for my resolutions, and disclose them to others even in more detailed way about  how I’m going to do this and that and that etc. etc. And after that my brain gets some sort of comfort, it feels as if it has achieved all the goals. Or maybe I over-simply everything, and brain in its own brain thinks ‘Oh that is easy, I can do that anytime I want to, so nothing urgent, take it easy, everything is under control’. As a result NOTHING gets done.
So my dear son, please please don’t belong to this group, it is a sure shot recipe for disaster.  I sincerely pray to God that you don’t inherit my this trait.

86) So in short, please make a conscious effort and don’t be like me when it comes to resolutions.

Rule# 85

Sometimes it is okay to fail, and sometimes it is okay to fail again and again. But what is not okay is to fail again and again for the same reason. Similarly it is okay to have boring and unproductive days, but definitely NOT OKAY to have boring and unproductive days because of the same reason.

85) Don’t LIVE the same day again and again.

Rule# 84)

84) Go ahead and FIX IT.

Yes, just fix it, whatever it is.
Be it a relationship or a toy or anything; be it cleaning up the clutter, go ahead just FIX IT. 
Remember usually it is the reluctance to change things or finding a temporary workaround or leaving it to be done ‘LATER’ leads to a stage when fixing it becomes overwhelming; and immediate solution appears only to discard it. Don’t let that ‘built-up’ happen. 
And if all else fails, remember sometimes discarding something is also ‘fixing’ it.