The Monk who bought a Ferrari !

This is interesting because the monk I am talking about was not born with a silver spoon or ever had any car and wasn’t he waiting for something tragic to happen in his life, so to go on the path of truth seeking. He never had any plans to travel to Far East in search any kind of enlightenment.

I believe the far most he went to east was up to Belgium that too only once during his childhood, holidaying  on his grand parents expenses.

But this monk was really a funny guy , lived all his life in the service of others around him ; opted to surrender to the promise made by him in the church to keep his wife always happy, devoting to the responsibility to get the best education to his kids.He was committed to his social life,never missed to pay his taxes, always  submitted his bills on time.

My monk lived this amazing pattern of life for almost sixty years of his life; people say about him that he always used to meet every one with grace on his face. He was known to be the man of his words. He lived all his life as a doer and was extremely satisfied with his way of living the life.

At last when he was about to retire from the office he checked for his pension funds and found that by that time he had saved enough money to  buy a Ferrari , the perfect  gift for his young son who was about to get graduate next month……..

....i think the color was RED... :)

Deep Thoughts - KT

Do I love you or I don’t ?

It’s really a tough question whenever asked against  ourselves  because I think  if we are convinced that we do then why this question is even required.

I have perceived love in many forms , love to the GOD when learnt for the first time that He is the one who runs the world , love to my mom when I understood that she actually wore me in her belly for nine months , love to the writing when I found for the first time that It’s my passion , love to the opposite genders when I realized that they possess the secret catalytic ability to bring out the best of me.

One thing for sure that laws of universe have balanced all the forces to ensure to make us feel loved in instalments , So we can understand and value those precious moments. They can be any moments, may be sometimes the planned ones by us or may be the planned ones by the universe for us. With time I have make a deal with myself to live fearless , enjoying every moment that life has to offer to. Doing all my duties and fulfilling the purpose of my visit to this planet.

I am happy to stay with a  naked mind , so I can see the beauty without any prejudice and I am ready to be blind folded when any one will try to show me the negatives of  this world. My intuitions and experiences have taught me that  that our mind is a good servant but a very bad master and Its entirely up to us how to deal with it.

Learning is simple to share , to love each and every second of your life , stay close to the people you love , tell and express yourself in front of your loved ones , be good , maintain a peace with yourself. I am sure that I am in love with all the positive energies of this universe and with each and every thing our creator has given to us either like power of expression or magic of mountains.

Thanks for always being in me when I used to think that you are at my side. :)

Good Night !

Being the Foreigner(Part One)

Dear All,

          

Sorry, I am a classified bum to get little late (actually lazy) in writing about my dream called as sLOVEnia but as they say the more you wait is the more you going to gain. After all I too had waited around fourteen years to visit this beautiful country and now I am very much satisfied that each and every year of my waiting period has been proved worth off.

So what do we expect from a perfect holiday?

Flying over high rise mountains seeing beautiful landscapes, roaring loud in wide spread silent valleys, seeing shining fishes in crystal clear rivers and lakes, feeling to be part of the calm canvas of mother nature, enjoying driving on a amazingly systematic road system, enjoying sudden splash of water from a sky high waterfall, experiencing the mysterious underworld of crystals in mountain caves, early morning walk on a silent sand beach, getting lost in time while wandering on the streets of a ages old beach town, the warm feeling of being a part of the colorful  European culture, listening to the sound of the jungle while walking on the shredded leaves of the autumn trees, greeting wildlife in its arena ,eating amazing local cuisines, tasting various flavors of honey wines , exploring an new world accompanying your best friends and finally most important of all :- Meeting with your childhood again which has been very well preserved by your overseas friends from around 6000 km far land. The same friends once you had referred as foreigners and now you travelling as a foreigner in their country.

Day One:

I reached to the capital of Slovenia, a city named as Ljubljana at 4:00 PM in the evening and the first impression of the city I got was from 10000 thousand feet, a green carpet with Alps as its borders. 

First Slovenian guys I met were the custom people on the Airport and they were pretty curious to know the exact reasons of my visit as they are not very used to of seeing Indian tourist in this part of the world and if asked Indians must be ready with their paper work to show to them, once convinced they are friends.

I answered all their queries in detail and left them little surprised with the fact that I am visiting from India to meet my Slovenian friends for fourteen years. (Still believing in childhood stories).

Mojca was waiting for me outside the airport with a wide welcome smile on her face. Actually she is my first friend from Slovenia and to be honest the one who motivated me to make this trip. We walked to her car in the parking area and then I did the first compulsory common mistake which every INDIAN or BRITISH does in Europe i.e. trying to sit on the driving side of the car. This broke the ice between us and we ended busting in laugh standing on the same side of the gate and she said to me, “Welcome to Europe”.

Then the journey to Celje started. Celje is around 70 miles from Ljubljana and it’s Mojca’s hometown and also was going to be mine for next three days. On the way Mojca explained me a lot about Slovenian culture and they way country has been formed. She showed me wooden architectures in the fields which are used to store grains.

Late in the evening my all friends from Slovenia had planned to host a dinner for me. It was in a restaurant near to the city centre of Celje. So we all drove to the main city and met every one. It was really the quality time, talking to all long time old friends, remembering old day’s stories and experiencing mixture of best dishes from Italian and Slovenian cuisine. Eating all kind of foods is one thing which should be on top of your list in Slovenia; these guys have all the flavors of the world getting cooked in their kitchens. We passed around three hours over there, and then went for a short walk in the city. I tried “Costa”, cheese nuts from a street stall and they too were amazing.

Then we decided to come back to home to have some rest as Mojca had already planned the full trip and we were suppose to start our travel next day in the morning. At the home we sat in the living room for some time and she used the time to show me some old pictures of mine from India, also she showed me a visiting card of ours which contains address of our old house, the one from where we had shifted around 10 years back and finally she showed me a painting which I had gifted to her during her visit to India probably the best canvas work done by me during my entire childhood in India.

Have to start early tomorrow morning , We are going to the Blade Lake.


Good Night Folks.

Meeting the Foreigners(Part Two)

Hey Readers,

This is a live reporting.

I am very near to my travel date and finally have got the visa too from the Slovenian Embassy.

This was an interesting week, testing my patience and my faith to my positive deeds. For the whole week I was waiting for my visa and finally got it today with a beautiful welcome smile on the face of the consulate staff.

I am expecting lot of fun out of these holidays. It’s a beautiful country with amazing sceneries to offer and I am well prepared with my double cleaned lenses of the SLR, ready to capture each and every inch of the happiness with magnificent landscapes.

It’s a great feeling and for now I am not going to write much on this topic, shall give you a broader coverage when I return.

Till then just remember one thing, which I always say to everyone.

Life is all about collecting good memories.

Meeting the Foreigners(Part One)

Dear Readers

How many of us are fan of meeting new people or exploring the new places and how many of us still believes in the fairy tales having all good ends or finally how many of us are hundred percent sure about what we want to achieve in our life?

And after setting up the stage with this question, if you think that I am going to say very few then please. …Excuse me.

We are living in twentieth century, which is the classified era of glorious achievements by the means of human intelligence, and being very realistic and generous I firmly believe that each individual of our planet enriched by some deep thinking will answer affirmative to these questions.

Now think of a fourteen year old kid who has seldom been out of his small town in INDIA and is growing up with lot of dreams in his eyes to explore the world.

One fine day he meets some foreigners in his city and decides to have a general chitchat with them. These foreigners tell him about their country called as Slovenia, which is around 6393.50 KM from his small town. They also tell him about the heights of Alps  and about many beautiful rivers and lakes that their county caters.

This kid, fascinated by these stories decides in his mind that one day he is going to explore that country at his own. He is from an average middle class INDIAN family with all traditional values but his dreams and thoughts are bigger then of his age and he has a friendly mind that continuously compels him to plan and cross any sort of physical or logical boundaries to achieve what he wants.

This is the story of this Kid but isn’t the same for every one of us?

I mean inside we all know what we want from life, what is going to make us happy or what we need to choose to ensure our happiness.

But sometimes when the time of action comes, we get feared of fulfilling our dreams; we just allow our futile minds to put so many obstacles in front of our own pathway to happiness.

I am not saying this because I am a guru or something but this is out of experiences of an observer, first to my own approach to life and then sometimes to the life of my limited near and dear ones.

 

Classic example:

I know if I am going to learn this dance form I am going to enjoy it.

What people are going to say?

Fish Man , who are these people, actual people or a subtle creation of our mind to manifest our own fears?

Well, I am sure I have shared my idea clearly and I believe by now you all must have understood which kid I am talking about.This is something I had though of doing around 14 years back and I am somehow very happy that soon I shall be roaming in Alps.

You guys go with you dreams, I am happy to live and fulfil mine and this is one definite thing which makes me happy.

Ok have to do some packing now J

   Happy Living.

Vinnonio(My Polish Nick Name)

Life's learning via bone crunching

Hello Readers

Some days back I was talking to one of my closest friend from INDIA  and we came to discuss about a book written by Mrs Preeti Shenoy titled as 34 Bubble Gums and Candies.

This is an amazing book with lots of colors; Preeti has successfully managed to pen down number of small-small inspiring stories from her daily life. I like to call this as “popcorn writing” because first you can keep the small book along side your popcorns in your tiny bags and secondly if you can just forbid your mind from buying popcorns for four consecutive times, you shall have enough savings to buy these low cost books.

But I really liked the message that her book gives and it’s very true, our life is full of bubblegums and candies and all that we need sometimes or may be most of the times is just a steady halt, a pause, time to chew and enjoy the taste.

(Vinay Quote: Suddenly it reminded me of ParleG Pop-Ins , You must be knowing about it If you are a eighty's born kid. I still love this candy and throughout my childhood, I had fought with my not so elder sister(didi) to share my share.)

The childhood is the greatest and fearless period of our life and at the same time the most disastrous one for our parents. And before I say, you smart people should be able to  judge that mine was not an exception to this. 

 

I have my own version of Spiderman movies famous dialogue that very well describes my childhood.

Bro Spiderman says: “With great powers comes the great responsibilities”

My childhood says: - “With ultra adventures & too many powers, comes the ultimate fractured bones and displaced joints: P”

What I am going to share with you today is one of the most sweet story from my childhood, It explains in detail my first bone crunching adventure and just like all the good stories ends , mine too has something to learn from it. 
 

We used to and we still stay in cantonment area of Agra and there is a beautiful garden near to our home called as Company Garden .I believe it was named on the name of   British East India Company before India got her freedom.

At that time I was in class 2^nd and my not so elder sister was in class 3^rd and we used to pass daily via this garden to go to our school. We used to be a gang of 4-5 neighbouring toddlers and my sister was the leader of our gang. She was the one extra courageous 11 year old lady who used to plan for daily doze of our adventures and one classic way of doing that was to keep on changing the regular track to the school.

(Off course only once we were sure that our dad or any elder is not anymore secretly following us.)

That day we decided to follow a hiking track to go to the school which meant - first deviate from the regular path, go downwards on the hillside slope, walk for around 200 meters by the side of the pond, try to see some fishes and finally climb back to join back the regular path.

We all decided and did start to walk downside on the slope but lost in my own world,instead of following her advice to walk slowly; I opted to fly direct from the top to the end using one hanging branch of the banyan tree.

Expecting too much strength from those little pair of hands, result was as expected.A lethal crash in to the bushes, damaging the green beauty and hurting my soft booty.

Every one of us was shocked, we were not ready for this and I was crying hard of the pain.

But my sister was the braver one among us. She anyhow managed to take control of the situation.Amazingly at that age she knew that somehow I am hers responsibility.She managed to call some elders (class 5^th) to help us and really it was a great display of the teamwork by all of them to get me out of there, totally fearless and with no pre concepts in the mind. (Think why I have written this line.) . Lately my dad came and situation was settled in a formal manner.

Now many years have passed since this incident, most of us are doctors, teachers or engineers and almost everyone settled peacefully in their respective life.

But to be honest, I strongly feel that those fearless adventures are the real foundation of whatever we have achieved today.

And this is what I want all of us to remember, understand and value. Internet, PlayStation, FaceBook all are good ways of entertainment but the real learning lies in doing and experiencing the outdoors.

Especially when we are with the kids, we need to ensure to let them drive the show. We need to give them the feeling that they are the decision makers and many times in their life they will require to be responsible for others also.

And see the magic shall happen. <3

Now, I have to give a call to my sister.Have to check what she is cooking today, yesterday I had given her some advice to cook a new style of Pav Bhaji and have to make sure my valuable advice is getting used in the right direction. :)

Bye Bye

Happy Living - Love You All

Lovely Lady Lina

Title of this post : Lina & Vinay

Yes, you have read the title correct. (This is a love story :P )

This post is about Lina and Me and I have a very high place for this "Me" in my heart :).

This is the story about our first meeting , our discussions about life and our sharing of pain and love with each other. (which we are still continuing.)

It was just another regular chilling weekend(I think Saturday with -4 degrees ) of my life in Helsinki. I very well remember that day I  had invited one of my friend's family for lunch at my place.(cooking my super hit desi sandwiches).

I was waiting for their arrival at the metro station when I saw Lina for the first time,a beautiful Fin lady. She  directly came to me and fired world's best question against Vinay Kumar Gupta Ji  "Are you from INDIA" ?.

When I said Yes , She told me that she knew about INDIA and the wonderful customs we have , she had never been there but would love to one day.

Our conversation went around  various topics and traditions and after sometime I got to notice that my friend and his family was already there and my friend was eyeing me with a splash look on his face. :)

(kyaa bhai hum bhi hain vala expression).

To be honest, friends are fine but for me the discussion with Lina was more tempting and It was growing in good direction and my heart was saying I need to listen to her,so I made a quick decision (dumb you may say :P).I asked Lina to join us over lunch.

( My friend family was literally shocked - But  this is me folks, can't help :P .) 

Following the discussion , we went to my flat and after some time Lina also came to join us(1:00 PM around ).

She had brought us three small bottles of a famous raspberry whiskey from Tallin.
(One for me , another for my teetotaler friend and one for his wife and kid may be :P , I still ROFL when I remember their expressions , Sorry guys. )


but its a custom in Helsinki and custom for INDIANS to respect the gift. (We did)

Also she brought with her the picture album of her family and of her dogs. We talked for quite a time
(though I listened mostly , strange kind of Vinay :P ).

She told me about her old days in London where she used to work as a receptionist in a hotel.How she had met her boyfriend in a social gathering. She also told me about the barber they have in Tallin and how much she enjoys to cruise there to get a haircut and about her dogs and the trouble they used to give to her.


It was really a good day , We all enjoyed her company and got a great chance to understand the flavor of a totally different culture. Finally , Lina bid a adieu to us(with a kiss on my forehead) and we all shared our addresses to be in touch in the future.


And its on till now , I have made a custom to call her once in two-three weeks to get in touch and to hear if she is doing good and she never fails to write to me almost from her each trip to Tallin, sharing all the happenings of the life.

And my dear lovely readers , holding this letter of hers in my hands(which i had received yesterday only).

I can assure you guys that she is doing great.

PS : Lina is 75 years old and the day we have met she told me that four days back her partner had died and she didn't know what to do , how to handle it , they had been together for around thirty years and one day suddenly he left her alone in the morning. 

She didn't have any kids or friends to share the pain or to talk about him and somehow she was knowing that we INDIAN knows what happens to the people when they die(if they come back or not)  this triggered the discussion between us and I am glad it happened :). 

Now after reading this narration If any of you want to write to my friend Lina to make her feel special , drop me an email to vinay.gupta.g@gmail.com with a header I WANT TO WRITE TO LINA, I will write the address back to you. (From INDIA you need a fifteen rupee stamp only.)

But please make sure , just write positive letters telling her that how much we love her and to make her feel special  and wanted.

(and please don't complain in future that life had not given you a fair chance to be good to someone who needs your positive words and time break :P )

I am strange sometimes but I know who I am :)

Cheers Guys , Love You All

The corporate saints

The corporate saints:  - A different breed of working professionals among us who are living a very peaceful and happy life by successfully maintaining the thin balance between their personal and professional fronts.

I opted to call them corporate saints because

a)    I believe that through my vast kit of experiences, now I am an over qualified Idiot to understand the essence of being a saint?

b)     I liked this title, Its kind of catchy Isn’t  ?

(Cautionary warning to the people who are under guidance and supervision of some other form of saints: This writer is just a newbie and he is definitely not going to write about people experiencing deep mediation sessions or joining yoga classes in their office premises (actually no writer can), So If you opt to read Vinay and cant relate to your way of seeing the things, you and only you will be responsible to waste your time.)

(Now this is what I call defencive writing: P)

So we were talking about my corporate saints.

Million dollar questions:  Mr Gupta who are these people? What kind of characteristics they hold, who is their master and what are their preaching?

I know I am getting a little dramatic now but as a awakened writer I have to keep you guys alive and awake too.  :P

Okay and as the stage is set now and winds are saying that you are in the mood to listen to me let me narrate WHO ARE THEY.

They are simple people but:

If they see me working late in the office, they ask me to go home and to have some good time with the family. Sometimes literally dragging me to the exit gates to make sure that I spend time with my loved ones.

They always use to meet me with a genuine smile on their faces, they have achieved high designations and posh offices, they are full of visionary ideas, and they are like propelling masses of the positive energies. They are always ready to help and share without any slight sign of EGO.

They are the bosses, they are the subordinates and at the same time they are good fathers / mothers / husbands / wives / sons / daughters. They are very mature to act and manage all these roles of life without mixing the priorities. (Always busy in spreading happiness).

Sharing the incident from one particular day I knew that they have planned a dinner with the family and when I found them working late in the office, I was kind of shocked, they are my heroes and I was sure that they never break such promise.

Curiosity forced me to enquire the reason and they told me that their team consists of lot of young members and as the team was working late so they too decided to stay back. However they have communicated the scenario to the family and have decided to take some goodies for them while driving back home.

(They are really sweet people and very well aware of how to make someone feel wanted and special.)

Honestly, they are very few in number but they are like shining stars, the powerhouses of the booming corporate culture. They keep everyone around them happy. No wonder people want to be friend with them.  (Law of attraction may be. :P)

But trust me (like I care if you not :P), they are real mature people and the live walking answers to all the queries related to work & personal life balance.

I truly believe that they are the real masters and possessor of the true secrets of happiness in today’s world.

(No more a secret for my readers, I know you all love me. :P)

PS : A humble appeal, don’t destroy or abandon your personal life on the name of professional ones and this is my sincere advice(like I am a guru ji) especially to those who are just starting their careers. These corporate houses are strange places,ready to utilize 200 percent of you (Mathematical error: P) and it is finally up to you only how carefully to walk on this thin rope.

Ok , I am not going to bore you more; you people have a fantastic weekend.

I am anyways having my plans to meet some nice people today and couple of Para Olympics tickets(dying to see my heroes) for the weekend. So time to say bye-bye

Uffff -- I am a dam busy person over the weekends: P

Cheers :)