OT anyone?

I also didn’t know the meaning until the day I had to be there…

Doctor: Is one of your friends around?

Me: Not really, almost everyone has gone to Goa… there is a guy who can come if it’s really urgent.

Doctor: Whoa! Are you sure you don’t want to call anyone here?

Me: This is just a minor surgery, is someone really required? can’t we go ahead…

Doctor: Alright gentleman, please sign the forms.

(the form said I authorize the doctor to operate on me and I take the responsibility and other stuff like that, as if I was going for a bypass surgery!)

I handed over the form to Nurse with my autograph on it.

Nurse: Go straight and take 1st left for OT. Wait for a few minutes there.

Me: What in the whole world is this OT?

Nurse: You want to go to Operation Theatre, don’t you?

It wasn’t very long when I got instructions to wear OT clothes and take out everything I had (watch, wallet, rings etc)… But my astrologer told not to take the rings out (I kind of murmured)… Rings are more important than your eyes?! (don’t know if someone told this or I just heard out of nowhere).

In next couple of minutes I was lying on the OT bed with those green clothes feeling little cold. Till now I had seen OTs only in Movies which created an aura of panic, but being there is a different ball game altogether which is inexplicable in words.

Doctor: How do you feel?

Me: Not too bad…

Doctor: Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.

Me: Am I going to be on anesthesia?

Doctor: Only nearby eyes…pause… We’ll start now.

Even after closing my eyes, I could make bright lights all around… they gave some injections near eyebrows… the Doctor talked to Nurse and started operating (I could hear the conversation and could feel all the movements.) this continued for some time and I was like, exploring the fun part, “man OT is not that bad after all!”

Me: Ah!

Doctor: let me know if it hurts, we’ve got solution for everything.

Me: Okay, it does hurt a little, can you get rid of that? (ignorant of the fact that my words will get me one more injection near my eyes! terrible.)

Doctor: Here we go, you won’t complain now!

though it didn’t hurt after that, I could still feel the stitches (now I knew how clothes felt when being stitched!! )

After 30 mins when I opened my eyes; there was a huge bandage, enough to be seen from far away, at my eyebrow and it hurt as well! I came out of the OT to check if I could leave or any other formality was left.

Nurse (smiling): You got to pay Rs. 143.

the surgery was covered by my medical insurance so I was charged for very few things.

Me (taking out the money from wallet): Can you do that for me? It doesn’t look good to be in the billing queue with all the bandages.

I wanted to come back and take rest before anyone could see and threw thousands of questions, though my wish was not granted and I had to explain people for almost a week about how I hurt my eyebrow!

Do You Think in The World Language?

I was in a “how to ace an interview” session when I heard those words, “Sometimes we don’t get clarity in thoughts because we think in our Mother Tongue and try to translate it in English.”

Now that really struck my thinking hats; do we think in a particular language? Do we even need a language to think? I always believed it has to do with brainwaves which works essentially the same way for everyone. Akin to computers that interpret only ‘0’s(zeros) and ‘1’s(ones) but can present the same in zillions of languages!

Image from tshirthell.com

When I am writing this post I am not really thinking in English, neither are you while reading this. If we think in a language do we mean a deaf guy or a child can’t think? (we can always argue they think in a language of their own, but that’s not the point here)

It’s the comfort level and knowledge of a particular language that brings clarity in our speech not the thinking process, moreover to have clarity in our presentation we should have clarity in our thoughts! We all think in the same language of neurons that gets translated into the language we speak.

Write a sentence in your Mother Tongue and translate it in English; if you think you are not able to find the correct words, it’s the lack of practice or knowledge (whatever you prefer to call) NOT the thought process! Next time when you hear something about thinking in a language xyz, don’t fall for it and give yourself an autosuggestion “Boss you need to learn language skills not thinking!”

Cheers.

Conversation With God

Me: How do you want your devotees to come here, walking 9 kms with 3350 stairs or getting a vehicle to make life easier?

God: Coming here is like studying for exams, one can choose to read the book or just the notes. It’s a personal choice and one can’t be classified as better than the other. The teacher wants all his students to do well no matter where do they study from.

Similarly all my devotees are equal for me and the way to come here depends on their ability, convenience, belief and other constraints; rather coming here is not even a pre-requisite. I am omnipresent, I reside in all the objects of the world. You can call me from anywhere!

Me: Does everyone’s prayers get answered?

God: Yes. Those who don’t get what they asked, the answer was NO. it’s a combination of many things; depends on their belief, long-term effects and how it helps the world to become a better place.

What does this number indicate?!

Sometimes they behave like the child who cries for the ice-cream unaware of the fact that it would have adverse effect on the cold he already has. They tend to have a myopic view of life and ignore the bigger picture. What they deserve is more important than what they want and there is a possibility that not getting what they wanted proves out to be better in long-term when life unfolds its  magic.

Me: Thanks for everything I’ve got so far and I hope life has planned successful days for me ahead.

God: What success are you talking about here? Are you one of those who support the notion of success being synonymous with money! Success is when you control the life, not the other way round. It helps get out of the comfort zone and allows to think about concerns of others, teaches to take risks and makes one enjoy what he does.

Money has different take altogether, it should be the bi-product not the central aim. It’s like learning driving first before getting a driving license; getting a license tests how well you know how to drive and whether you are fit to drive without harming others. Having said this, I don’t mean money is not important (it certainly is) but doing what you are good at matters more and money follows those who know what they are up to. You can’t afford to waste your life playing cricket when you are good at soccer. This is not just ignoring your skill but also depriving the world of a good soccer player! Success is all about making the best of your abilities.

Amen.

[background: Last weekend I visited Tirupati Temple, the journey consisted of walking 9 kms with 3350 stairs covered in 4.5 hrs. It was an awesome experience and above conversation was one of the key takeaways!]

Are You Marketing Yourself?

D: You are very good at work but you need to learn to market yourself. All this good work doesn’t help unless people know about it.

Me: Didn’t they say, “Let your actions speak for you!”

D: If only everyone knew the language (read ‘they believe what is presented to them’). When they ask: “if he is so good, why didn’t we hear about him before”, I’ll not be able to fight for you. Take it as a lesson for life: “We need to push ourselves to move ahead. When you do some good work let everyone know, it enlarges your circle of your influence and helps in long-term!”

I stood speechless while I learnt one of the most important lessons of life!!

D continues: Start by convincing yourself then market it to others. That’s why I asked you to explain why did you think you deserved a good rating (refer my previous post for this).

Image from:wulffmorgenthaler.com

For the first time I realized the importance of selling oneself. It changed the way I thought about work! Though I remember hearing something similar in school but I was too young (read ignorant) to understand it then. (at times I think I am so lucky to learn the important lessons of life early in my career; other times I think if I were so lucky, I’d have been much ahead in my career than I am.)

In essence, “Being successful is not only about doing the good work but promoting yourself as well.”  One of my friends said: “You mean to say it’s about vijibility (visibility)”  Yeah, sure it is…lolz..

Same People, Similar Situations, Different Perspective

School: If you get good marks in Maths and Science, you’ve better future prospects.

Undergrad: Besides marks you should have done some extra curricular activities and won accolades as well.

Grad: Marks constitute very small part of overall evaluation, you should have good work exposure, leadership and communication skills etc.

Does that sound reverse chronological to you as well?! Shouldn’t we encourage leadership and communication skills in school itself and once we’ve got the life skills, solving equations or calculating distance of the Sun from Moon would make more sense! More often than not, we fall prey to the prejudices and act likewise without challenging the basic notion.

Image Source: myopera.com

When we grow up and accept things as presented to us, we’re supposed to look at it from different perspective, to challenge the prevailing ideas and do things differently to prove ourselves worth competing with others (and I thought being good at Mathematics would suffice! )

Mr. D: Tell me why do you think you deserve a good rating?

Me: I’ve done all the things efficiently, didn’t make any mistake most of the time, and was always available.

Mr. D: Everyone else has done the same, what difference did you make? What value did you add?

Me(to myself): In school, if everyone did well in exams everyone used to get good marks. I didn’t need to do the sum differently (provided it was correct) to prove I was better.

I forgot it doesn’t work this way here. We don’t get marks for things we did rather we get points for doing things differently and adding value to it. “Efficiency” is no more a buzzword. Not sure whether to consider good or bad, but I believe this should be taught since childhood (earlier the better)!

After learning to think differently I have a new perspective about the half glass problem,“The glass is neither half full nor half empty, it’s double the size than required!”

What are you Blogging Today

When I am not writing, I am most probably reading and there is so much of it that a lifetime doesn’t seem to be sufficient! Nevertheless, this weekend was not much eventful and I got chance to read scores of Blogs on almost all the topics of the world; people write about anything and everything. I read blogs related to college, sports, fashion, pets, pubs and the list goes on and on.

There are 9 years old kids who write about toys, paintings and school as well as 70 years young people who tend to write about life and other experiences.

Image from neilturner.me.uk

The most common topics include talking about personal lives, politics, places, sports, parties, weddings,  real estate, events, technology, environment, food and even about blogging. there are people who put only pictures (remember, a picture is worth 1000 words!) while there are guys who are crazy about advertisements and their blogs are full of ads worth watching!

Amidst all this fun and entertainment, there are those who blog about life’s challenges, struggles and how did they overcome those. I read a blog about how cancer changed the life of a lady and the way she handles her kids along with the treatment and hopes to live a cancer free life again.

There is this lady who had 12 pregnancies/miscarriages and she blogs about how did she learn that surrogate mother is not a bad idea and how things are taking shape since then.

Heidi, after being married and having a kid realizes that she loves her old friend,  gets out of the marriage and starts living with her friend. She changes her mind again and comes to her husband and kid to live a normal life, later realizes that she is not lesbian rather there is someone else within her (Katie) who is so and she suffers from multiple personality disorder!

I was amazed as well as shocked to learn that people put so much about their personal lives on a public forum (it requires so much fortitude). I’d never dare to blog something like that (It’s like being nude in public, not everyone can handle it). People think differently depending on how grownup is the society and how mature is others’ behavior after knowing all this about someone!

Overall blogging is a great tool not only to express oneself but to challenge the beliefs and thought pattern prevailing in the society. So what are you blogging today?!