Traffic woes and Boycott movies

Honkfest Chain Reaction

Sometimes I don’t get people. One day I was stuck in traffic and this guy started honking. Other than to blow the cars away to clear the traffic, the honking didn’t make any sense (or maybe he was in a hurry because he needed to relieve himself ). You know in some places honking is offensive to some people. I think this was one of those places. Suddenly another guy honked at this guy for honking and then another guy honked at these two guys and hollered to stop honking. This became a chain reaction and the whole traffic block became a honkfest. Hearing the diversity of sounds, I thought I was listening to a Tamil masala song.

Ninja Auto drivers

Do you know that Indian auto-rickshaw drivers are the descendants of ninjas (I don’t know about other countries because I have never been outside India. Jai hind!)

So, these auto drivers are actually ninjas. You would know this if you notice them on the road. You can expect them from coming from all directions. You would see them in the right rearview mirror. Next moment, poof! They disappear and they would be crossing you over from the left, and when you manoeuvre your car to avoid a collision, they will abuse you. One of my friends believes that even God cannot predict in which way an auto turns.

He is right.

Autos drivers are ninjas, folks.

Boycott movies

Boycott movie culture

Hey, do you know about the boycott culture coming up in India? It is not a 5000 year old culture or anything, but it’s interesting. Here it is: Whenever a movie is going to be released, somebody would boycott that movie and others would boycott that movie because of that somebody.

You can also boycott that movie if you want if you have nothing much to do with life. No salary slip is needed, no educational requirements, and no age bar. All you need is a social media account and knowledge of how to use hashtags (here is the free template: #boycott[moviename]. You are welcome). Now find some movies that are going to be released and see what you don’t like about that movie: maybe you don’t like the way the actors’ smile, or their costumes. I heard that someone decided to boycott a movie because he didn’t like the font of the movie’s title. Apparently, he was a designer and he thought that the movie would destroy the “design culture”. Others joined him thinking that he was right. In another instance, someone boycotted a movie because the lead actor was not a dog lover, which offended that guy’s dog. Usually, people have no idea the reason behind the boycott and people actually go to watch the movie to see why it has to be boycotted although they had no plans to watch that movie before. So, anything works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against this new culture because there are some positives about this boycott culture: If you think nobody knows you and wants to increase your social media followers, this activity might help; you would know about actors and directors you had never heard about. I know a guy who became a movie buff just by watching boycott movies. And Netflix is going to add a new genre to its library: boycott movies.

Okay. Let me go and boycott some movies now.

Smiling is contagious

Have you noticed that you smile when you see others smiling (at you) or yawn when you see someone yawn at you (perhaps you bored them to death and they were trying to put you to sleep) or sneeze when they sneeze at you?

Turns out, it’s a thing and people use it to their advantage such as those celebrity award shows. They can show you any terrible comedy sketch and make you laugh. They just need to avoid showing you people who are yawning and show only smiling people (obviously for other reasons).

Captive writing on a flight

I am a captive writer; I write when I am in a toilet or on a flight.

I was bored af on my recent flight. If you are in an aisle seat, all you could do is stare at the back of the seat in your front or check the food menu and pretend that you are interested in the food you cannot afford (I advise you not to do this when you are hungry).

The seat belt sign was always on or else I could have taken a stroll on the flight. I tried to sleep but some kids were checking how loudly they can scream.

So what did I do? I started writing.

These popped up in my head and I wrote them down. I have nothing against travelling by flight. I actually like it (yawning) nor anything against aircrew.

(It’s not my problem if you get offended or don’t get this or don’t find it funny)

Here is how you can become an aeronautical engineer in a couple of minutes:

Take a sheet of paper. Not too long not too short. A4 size would suffice.

Open youtube and find any video that shows how to make a paper plane in a couple of minutes.

Once you are done, fly the plane.

If it doesn’t fly like those planes you see in the movies, check the video again. Or Maybe you made it wrong.

Also, if you don’t know what A4 size is, check another YouTube video explaining paper sizes. 

Fun fact: It’s definitely smaller than a tree (if you are environmentally friendly)

Someone told me about a car that is the safest one out there, built like a tank. And he said there is an added layer of protection: the mileage is too less that you would barely use it. The safest car indeed.

I asked a guy why he is rushing to board the flight. He said he wanted to call dibs on a window seat. He said the sunset is beautiful from there and he is a photographer. By the way, it was a 2-hour mid-day flight.

I decided to take up Buddhism and start meditation seriously when I had a couple of flights that had infants inside.

I had always thought the odd thing I have seen in my life is a crow hitchhiking on an eagle until I saw a guy watching workout videos on his phone on a flight (yeah, the seat belt sign was on).

Twist: he had a beer belly.

Everyone is on a diet until they see a chicken biriyani.

If you think you are not a musician, you are wrong. Just ask someone who has heard you snoring.

Kids are cute and all until they start screaming.

I am a polyglot. I make mistakes in several languages.

Flight attendants should demonstrate safety measures with fear on their faces (or a spooky face) for the passengers to take them seriously. They keep a weirdly calm face for possible flight accidents. Come on, the passengers should know the horror.

On a flight, A kid was playing with his younger sibling to make him stop screaming. It worked and there were lots of smiles and cuteness. Then the mother jumped into the party and soon it turned into a screamfest. Now the passengers wanted to jump out.

They should have listened to the flight attendant’s safety measures.

The most useless thing to listen to is when the flight attendant announces that the flight will be landed soon. What are they thinking? That we think the flight will never land? That people get bored and jump out? Unless there are air blocks (like roadblocks), flight duration is sufficient information.

A passenger asked the flight attendant for alcohol. The flight attendant politely refused by saying that alcohol is not allowed on domestic flights. He said he is going to catch an international flight next and this is his connecting flight. (True story)

Okay. I might travel on an international flight someday. Now get me some booze.

The guy sitting next to me on a flight was weirdly rubbing his ears. When the rubbing became violent, I told him it was the noise of the flight, not the noises from his head.

It’s been 1 hour since 40 minutes ago, the flight attendant announced that the flight would land in 20 minutes.

I missed a DJ party on the flight because there was a lot of turbulence and the seat belt sign was always on.

This guy sitting on the window seat has been looking at the sky throughout the flight.

I imagined him spending all his life looking up at the sky.

The pilot did not mention the temperature of the city we were going to land. I asked him why didn’t he do that. He said he doesn’t believe in global warming.

Some pilots walk through the airport as if they were carrying the flight on their shoulders.

The guy sitting on the window seat took pics while taking off and landing. I told him that the sky is blue everywhere. He said his uncle told him to take pics like this for good fortune wherever he is going.

Finally, the pilot woke up and announced that we are going to land soon.

“Dear lovely passengers, I am glad to inform you that we have finally landed.

Please do not use your guns. This is for the safety of your fellow passengers.”

We love to follow others. Oh, you want proof? Travel by flight.

“Thank you so much for flying with us”

“Oh, I didn’t fly. I thought the aeroplane did.

I was just sitting. And yeah the seat belt was strapped on.”

(At one of the chocolate shops in the airport)

“Sir, this is pure swiss chocolate”

I checked the price

My flight ticket was cheaper.

(Outside the airport

A random guy comes and asks)

“Taxi?”

“No, we are passengers”

That’s it for now, folks!

Tall Buildings, Commercials, and Instagram

What’s up, folks.

I have issues with certain things.

Tall buildings

Tall buildings fascinate me. I guess it’s because I was born and brought up, till I was 15 years old, in a village. After 15, I pretty much brought myself up. I moved to a city for further studies, but that city did not have buildings you see nowadays. In mumbai, the buildings are huge. I mean, really really huge. I sprain my neck if I do a look-see. At night, they appear as if they are on fire, with all the lights from the apartments. They make us look minuscule although we constructed them. I wonder how people who stay at the top floors manage their lives. I mean, what would they do if they have to take a leak. Taking the stairs is definitely not an option although people advocate “take the stairs, stay healthy”. Come on, you cannot fool gravity. The more you go up, the more you feel like peeing. Gravity is a bitch, folks. Don’t mess with it. I have heard people died trying to test gravity. Also, life of people with tiny bladder is hell if they stay at the top floor. They would feel like peeing half way down the building. I guess the building lobby should have common restrooms. I have this eerie fantasy about imagining myself on top of the tallest thing I see. If it’s a tree, I imagine myself at the tip of the highest point of the tree. I know it’s not physically possible, but it’s just an imagination. I wonder how I would feel being there like that. I am not crazy; I had myself tested. 

Commercials

I have a problem with commercials. We take them for granted. Do people buy stuffs seeing the commercials? Some are ridiculous. Some are ludicrous. Some make you ask, “what year is it?” Does the type of commercial has anything to do with people making the decision to buy it? It presupposes that people are stupid and they make fancy commercial to lure people to buy things. It works with kids, but I am not sure about adults. Come on, look at the toothpaste commercial. All that dancing and drama to just to get you to brush your teeth?

Some toothpaste commercials say that you would be confident if you use it, and some say it would get you laid if you use it. I have seen a girl ready to kiss this guy because he used a toothpaste with mint flavour. It’s as if the only thing that stopped the girl from kissing the guy was just bad breath. By the way, the commercial did not say anything about the toothpaste the girl used. I guess it implies that guys are okay with bad breath. The world is imploding with these toothpaste commercial, folks. 

And then there are bathroom cleaning commercials. This dude wearing a shirt white as snow and a cap advertising the bathroom cleaner visits houses to clean their bathrooms. Why? Who gives a fuck if your bathroom is dirty! It’s your shit, you better deal with it. Do you notice that the lionshare of commercials is “cleaning products”. Does that mean these people think that we are unhygienic? There are bathroom cleaning products, soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, kitchen utensil cleaning products, and detergents, deodorants. What’s wrong with these people? We are doing okay. Why can’t they just show the product and ask us to go buy it? I would definitely trust that product more than these fancy commercials. 

Instagram 

Don’t get me started on instagram. I am addicted to it. It’s as if I have an “instagram time-bomb” inside that makes me check the instagram every now and then. It’s the new “booze” in town. It created the “likes and followers poverty” in this twenty-first century. People are crazy about instagram that some psychologists do research on instagram effects on mental health. They found that it depresses us more and reading that makes us more depressed and share it on instagram. 6 years ago, I had never heard of instagram because I was busy on facebook. Then facebook bought instagram and made it facebook 2.0. Now everybody is on instagram and you are an influencer if you have over 10K followers because some brands pay you a shift load of money. I wonder the effect of instagram on “influencers”. I guess instagram is depressing for “poor” people only. Celebrities and influencers are doing fine, folks. 

My Life and Bird Poop

I feel terrible sometimes. No, I feel terrible all the time. I don’t want to admit it though. I want to pretend that everything is okay and smile in front of others because I think others are having a good time. That makes my life even more miserable.

I like to take a walk frequently during the day, usually after a tea if it is in the morning or in the evening. It makes me feel alive, or atleast that’s what I like to think so. I usually sit somewhere quiet, as it slows me down (I am not a busy person eventhough I want to be one because busy persons are successful people, right?).

Philosophy from Bird Poop

So there was this day when I finished my tea after that brisk walk, and I sat on a bench under a tree. The bench was red in color with white handles (the weather faded the colours). I like sitting under a tree because it brings me close to the nature, I could hear the sound of wild life and all. But I makes sure that there are no birds above me sitting on the tree.

I was depressed that day, as usual. I was feeling suffocated (figuratively) by everything going on in my life, I wanted to breathe properly because I felt like my life was not being fair to me (I don’t know what that means, but I have heard it somewhere). I was unsure about my future and all. I was feeling like crap.

Then…

a bird pooped on me.

Word of advice: Always check before you sit under a tree.

It fell on my left hand, just below my wrist. I was wearing a full-sleeved shirt with sleeves folded up. The bird could have pooped on the shirt, but it didn’t. It had to do it on exposed skin. The poop was a dark solid mass with white spot on it, and it looked like a giant peanut. I looked up and it was a small bird, and it immediately flew away as though it came just to drop one on me and was waiting for me to look up before it flew away. The whole situation reminded me of the dialogue from the movie God Father,

Don Corleone sends his regards

Anyway, I thought that the poop was too big for that bird. The bird didn’t have any colourful feathers or anything, and if you ask me about its scientific or common name, I cant tell you because I didn’t bother to check the beauty of the bird, or admire its aesthetics or looked it up on google because there was a poop on my hand. So the last thing I cared about was its beauty or name. Seeing the size of the poop, I thought that bird had been struggling with constipation or something before it decided to give a big drop. I mean, is it physically possible for that bird poop this big? I don’t think so. (If you have scrolled down this page to see for a picture of that poop, I’d hate you)

As usual, I had checked for any birds before I sat down. I did not see anything. I didn’t even hear any sound. I can’t tell if it was hiding somewhere there or came after I sat there. Nevertheless, I guess it was a ninja bird or something and its weapon was that giant poop. It was quiet as if that bird knew me before (or in a past life) and was taking revenge on me or something.

Shit happens

Shit happens, I know.

But this time shit happened for real, that too when I was seriously thinking about my life. You know, being depressed and all.

My life is important for me. But the bird didn’t care, it is just another place for it to relieve itself. It cared only about the what it had to do.

You might be thinking why I am talking too much about a bird poop.

I am getting to it (Come on, a bird pooped on me. Show some compassion, will you?)

Why does this matter ? Or the philosophy of bird pooping on you.

The world doesn’t care about your problems. I don’t mean that somebody would come and poop on you, although figuratively it can happen. At this point in your life, you might have problems in your life in varying degrees. And you might expect others to be fair to you. You might feel like a victim, and you might blame others for your problems or your boss for making your life miserable or something. But others don’t want to know/or solve your problems. Just like you have issues, others have issues going on in their life as well.

I am not being a pessimist here, nor trying to be a cynic. Just because you have some issues going on in your life, doesn’t mean that others would treat you any differently. They might listen to you and tell you that everything would be okay and all, but that won’t make your problems go away. Don’t expect others to come and solve it for you, or expect it to go away. If it’s your problem, you have to solve it by yourself.

Just like a bird can poop on you and fly away, others can make your life horrible because they don’t want to know your problems. No matter how careful you live (I was too careful about not sitting under a bird), shit happens.

That’s what life is about. Shit happens. And being alive is solving your shit.

That’s all.

By the way, I should be given a medal or something for finding philosophy in bird poop. Don’t you think so?

If you think this article is bullshit, let me know. If you think this article is awesome, let me know that too.

Have fun solving your problems.

P.S. I am not suicidal or anything.

P.P.S. I am not against animals, nor have any problems with birds.

Push or Pull or Do Whatever the Fuck You Want to Open the Door

I was sitting outside this coffee shop and reading something. I noticed the door and it said, “push for the best coffee.” So if I pull and open the door, I won’t get their best coffee? They would give me a bad coffee or something? I guess someone monitors how the customers are entering inside so that they would make best or bad coffee. May be they have CCTV camera to track these things. I noticed this guy, who works there, going in and out of the coffee shop frequently for some time. And he was not following the instruction. Either he hated his job or he didn’t give a fuck about the way the door opens or the instruction or he hated coffee. Some time later, I saw his buddy coming out of the shop and he wasn’t following the instruction either. I guess they both hated their jobs or didn’t give a fuck about the damn door, and I guess that’s why they were buddies. That was quite an instruction, though. What if a customer pull the door to open it and he/she would have to leave because he/she wouldn’t want a bad coffee. See, this can even make them go out of business. I saw two men approached the coffee shop and one of them pulled the door open, but the other guy stopped him and pushed it! I guess he badly wanted the best coffee. I wanted to sit there and take a statistic of how people enter the coffee shop but I got bored after a while and decided to write this.

I am sure you have faced this push/pull dilemma. It’s everywhere — doors of restaurants, coffee shops, malls. Mostly I do the opposite of what it says. it’s not that I am illiterate or anything. it’s cleverly placed so that I couldn’t ignore it. I have to push/or pull to open the damn door. I know what push and pull means. But when I see this, I would be in a dilemma. What is it? Should I push when it says pull or should I push when it says pull. What would happen if I push instead of pull? Does the door break? Or they will might get offended or something? What is it? All these things would start growing my mind. And I stand there wondering what to do. Should I push or pull? I start sweating. My hands starts shivering, and my heart beats faster as if it wants to escape to avoid the embarrassment I am going to get. I know I need to push when I see push (Duh!). But I just can’t. I think of pull when I see push and I think I should pull when I see push. Fuck. It’s difficult than solving a physics problem (yes. I find it difficult to solve a difficult physics problem).

I get over this by doing a mental exercise. I tell myself that push means push, and pull means pull. And sometimes I even push/pull a hypothetical door in front of me (I try to make it subtle, though). Besides making me look like a complete (or partial) idiot, it helps me to do the right thing ( 9 out of 10 times!).

After I enter inside, I wonder why I see this everywhere — Why it makes my life difficult. I want to see something like, “Do whatever you want to open the damn door”. Or something plain, like, ” just open the fucking door” or if they completely leave this door-opening-instruction, I would be happy, too.

But, yeah, next time, I am going to just open the damn door in whatever way I want.

P.S. This post has nothing to do with the coffee shop or the people who works there.

Stop Waiting for Motivation

If this is how your story goes, you may read this article (if it’s not, you may read this if you are bored or something).

You don’t like reading, but you just want to know what this post is about, then you may skip the next four paragraphs.

So you want to be something other than your mainstream job wants you to be — a painter/writer/photographer/or-whatever-that’s-in-your head, perhaps. You think it’s cool to do such things because you felt immense pleasure in doing such things that your mainstream job fails to give you. You would see that others call you a genius or something at what you do. And, finally,  you call it your “passion”. You would think that pursuing your passion is great and, it would give you unlimited happiness for the rest of your life. You think about going into your passion.

Because you are going into it your passion full time, you need to do it every day or to spend more time for it. You may even do that for the first few days or something, but you find it difficult to be consistent. But it’s not just happening. You may be good at those things, but you know that you are not awesome at it. But, you couldn’t just do those things. You convince yourself that your are out of motivation. So you wait for motivation to strike at the back of your head so that you can start doing those things and be awesome at it. Yes, sometimes you feel motivated and you do those things without stopping for hours. You feel good about it. But, it is transitory and you wait for another wave of motivation.

You search for tips, read blogs, talk to the best people in that area on how to feel motivated all the time. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it would take a long time. You get frustrated. You might even get this feeling that you are not “meant” to do those things, that you should be doing only your mainstream job. And when somebody asks you, you say that you are not motivated or you just don’t have enough time or energy for that after your work. You think that the iconic people in those areas are gifted or has magical powers to do such things.

Is this happening to you? It used to happen to me. But I didn’t like it, for I don’t believe in magical powers/gifted talent and all that. So I did some research and found out what made those people different than the rest of the people. I am going to tell you what it really is.

The difference between them and the rest of the people is their mental resilience. That is, they just do it no matter what their state of mind is. They don’t wait for motivation to do what they want to do . They just do it. Sure, you are like unstoppable when you ‘feel like doing it’, but that’s not it. It will not help you achieve anything significant. So what you must do to get good at something?

You have to keep doing it every day. Chuck the idea of motivation. I know it’s hard, but an idea is useless if it’s not working for you. Stop waiting for it, and develop a habit of doing it everyday. I agree that you will get motivated when you see others’ work. But it means that you can also do those things, it doesn’t tell you that you have to do it.
If you are thinking about going into your passion full time or want to get better at it, you have to do it even if you are bored Or not feeling like doing it. That’s the deal.

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning —  Peter De Vries

Move out of your comfort zone

You might have heard elsewhere that you have to move out of your comfort zone to achieve something or be productive. That is true. We love comfort zone (duh! That’s why it’s a comfort zone). And doing your mainstream job is moving out of comfort zone, and that’s why most people hate it. But, over time we are getting good at what we are doing, aren’t we? Some people even say that they are getting used to their work. Moving out of comfort zone and doing things help you to grow and improve yourself. And doing something when you feel motivated is like doing it in the comfort zone. Yes, moving out of comfort zone is frustrating. You would feel like your passion is as bad as your mainstream job is. Some of you might say that if you are getting frustrated at doing what you love to do, then there is no point in doing it. I bet such people don’t do anything significant. They just keep saying it until they die.

Comfort zone is where you can do things easily. There is no effort or boredom or frustration. It’s so easy for you, you would feel like your life is going smoothly. And that is okay for most people. They would argue that they should be in comfort zone because they had been working all day or all week. For people who want to do something other than their regular work, motivation stands just outside the comfort zone and taunts them. But, you just want it to come inside your comfort zone.

So the idea is to go out of the comfort zone and just do it until it becomes your comfort zone. Just keeping doing it until it becomes so easy for you. Expand your comfort zone territory until it’ so effortless.

 

Move out

And expand your comfort zone

 

• If you want to be a writer and publish a book, don’t wait for motivation. Just start writing. Develop a habit of writing every day. You may feel like nothing is coming out, but you just write. Trust me, anyone can be a writer if they have something to say. The only prerequisite is that they should think clearly.
• If you want to be a painter, you just paint. The medium doesn’t matter. Whatever, you can get your hands on at that moment, take it and just do it. Draw every day. Follow a tutorial or just paint something random. If you are following a tutorial, repeat it until it’s too easy for you.
• If you want to be a photographer, don’t just sit in front of computer and look at the works of others. Just go out and do it. Nothing else will help you to become a good photographer.

Thus, if you want to create something significant (write a book, make awesome paintings, make good photographs) develop a habit of doing it every day instead of waiting for inspiration. Do it when you don’t feel like doing it.

Do these (or one of these) if you are stuck at something

This happens to all doers. We get stuck at what we do — let it be writing, science, photography, wellness routine, etc. The question is not why it happens; instead, you should ask what can you do about it? I like to do various things and sometimes I get stuck at all of them. So, here is what I do about it when that happens.

 

By the way,

 

You should read this:

 

• If you are a doer and has this all getting stuck issue going on in your life and is driving you insane.
• If you want to quibble on my writing or my blog and actually want to help me improve.
• If you are jobless and has nothing better to read.
• If your computer is frozen and you can’t close this window.
• If you are a blogger and looking for some ego boost.
• If you like to share links on social media.

 

You should not read this:

 

• If you are not a doer.
• If you are the only one who think you are a doer (seriously, don’t waste your time).
• If you are a hypocrite who likes to criticize anything that others do ( seriously, don’t waste my time. I really want your population to go extinct someday).
• If you are looking for a magic life recipe that will change your life overnight.
• If you are a pathological pessimist (I just made up that word).
• If you don’t have enough patience to read a lengthy post.

So, here is what you should try to ‘unstuck’ yourself and start doing

 

Throw your excuses in the dustbin

 

You have to agree with me on this. we make excuses (a hell lot of them) when we are stuck at something. Some of them goes like this: I don’t have time, no energy, can’t focus because I have too many things on my plate already, I will do it when I have time, I will do it when all the planets align in straight line* You know what, the bottom line is that these excuses prevent you from doing it. So, chuck them straight away and see if something is happening or not.

 

Find out the cause and start acting on it

 

Be mindful and see what is making you stuck. Is it the monotonous routine? Lack of positive results? Is your skill level need to be improved? Find out the cause. I would recommend you to write it down on a piece of paper.

 

If it is the monotonous routine, take a break from it. Don’t think about it from a few days. But, if you are scared of creative loss or something, then change the schedule or place and see if that helps. If it is your skill level, then find out what you should learn to get your back on track and make some progress.

 

Motivate yourself

 

Sometimes you  stuck at something because you get demotivated. It could be due to lack of appreciation or people trying to pull you down. Whatever the reason is, you should find ways to get yourself motivated. I like to read blogs on my niche as it gives me new ideas and inspiration (that’s how I wrote this post).

 

Do something completely different

 

If acting on the cause doesn’t help (sometimes you don’t even feel like thinking about the cause, I know), then you might have burned out or something. In that case, do something completely different.  Do chores, help someone, go for a ride.

 

Give up

 

Yeah, you heard me. If nothing works no matter how much time you give or effort you put, just give up and move on. Why do you have to waste your time and effort on something which isn’t helping you anyway? So just forget about it and start something different.

The Myth of Born Talent/Gifted skill/ and all that Crap

“What do you do besides science, Vidhu?”, the professor asked. I couldn’t say anything,  not even a word. He asked me if I like travelling or reading or some hobby, and I had nothing to say. I was thinking that why on earth he had to ask me this fucking question when I was expecting some questions on science, for I was sort of acing the second round of my PhD interview at the Department of Genetics, IISc. The interview was in 2010, and I had no hobbies then. I used to be just a regular person — thinking like what the society thinks.  I guess I never cared about hobbies or anything since I was under the notion that it doesn’t get you anything that would improve my life. The idea of living is to study, get good grades, get a job, get married, reproduce, and die. That’s it. Nothing else matters. But, if you want to become a photographer or painter or writer, you should have that innate talent; otherwise, you shouldn’t even bother to try as it would be a waste of time. I was following the same idea until I was asked that question.

If you are wondering about the result of that interview, I didn’t qualify it. I don’t know if it was because that I didn’t have any hobbies or anything. But, when I went back home what bothered me was not the result of the interview, but the question which made me not say a word. It touched a nerve. For a few days after that, I was thinking about starting a hobby of some sort. But, even then, I was under the impression that since I didn’t have an inborn talent or skill at anything, I couldn’t get better at those things. But, anyway, I decided to start a new hobby.

I googled and made a list of some doable hobbies. I started philately, but it was not an engaging hobby (although it has been going good since then. I have collected stamps of 65 countries and 350 different varieties of Indian stamps. Next, I tried photography. I thought I could get myself started by taking some shots with my mobile phone camera, and I did. I compared the images with the ones I see on the internet; the results were crap — absolute crap. I was discouraged and gave up on the whole hobby thing.

I tried photography again when my sister lent me her camera. It was better than the mobile phone camera. But, I had no idea how to operate it, let alone take good photographs. I googled and found out that it was a point and shoot camera and how to hold it, focus, and take photographs in the right way. I followed all that and the results were much better than those taken with the mobile phone camera. Within few days, I learned everything about that camera (its pros and cons) — thanks to Google. I started taking more and more pictures like I was possessed or something. I remember that my dad got worried, because he [really] thought that I was going crazy.

Later, I bought my Canon 1000D (until that time, I had no idea what a DSLR was), but it was very difficult to get some decent shots. I got discouraged at first, but I got back on track and started learning photography systematically. I haven’t given up on photography after that. It’s been almost 5 years, and I am confident to say that I take decent photographs. I got featured in Bing, Yandex, and two of my photographs had been selected by National Geographic Magazine editors. I am not bragging. You can check out my portfolio here:

• 500Px
• Facebook Photography Page
• NATGEO Portfolio

 Besides taking good pictures, what was liberating was the realisation that you don’t need to have  a born talent/gifted skill for you to do something. It is just a fucking myth. After that, I decided to do something new every year. In 2011, I worked hard and learned photography; in 2012, I started my digital photography blog Shutterstoppers; in 2013, I started learning pencil drawing and digital painting; in 2014, I started developing reading and writing habit. I have been learning all these and trying something new ever since I had realised that there is nothing like a born skill; my life taught me that. You see, it is not your genes that are preventing you from becoming a photographer/artist/writer; rather, it is believing in some crap like you need some inborn talent to do or get good at something. It is absolute bullshit.

My first portrait (pencil on paper, 2014)

Pencil drawing (2013)

Digital painting in Ipad

Taken in 2010

Taken in 2013

 By showing you all these, I am not singing my own praises here; instead, I want you to see, through these images, that this is a pretty good job done by someone who didn’t born with these talents. Also, I started my hobbies when I was 23, so your age doesn’t matter.

Let me explain all this in a philosophical (or boring) way.

What prevents most people from becoming an artist/scientist/athlete/photographer?

 If a man has a desire to become one (or all) of the above said, he  asks a question to himself first– Do I have the talent or the skill to do this? Is my purpose to become the above-said? Man thinks that, to achieve something or to become skilled at something, he has to have the innate ability to become an artist or scientist or anything he desires to be. But it contradicts reality. He thinks like that because he is under the illusion that he has to be gifted the particular talent he wants to achieve. Then he convinces himself that unless he is gifted, he cannot achieve something. His mind gets crippled by this illusion of innate endowment.

You might ask, how do I know that it is an illusion?; that, how do I know that there is nothing called an innate endowment, but it is all about our consciousness. Humans have the power of volition (and that is the only power we have). To become something you desire to be is up to our volition. Volition is an attribute of the faculty of our consciousness. It is a fact that humans do not fully understand about our consciousness or how the mind works. But, at the same time, he does not want to believe in uncertainty either; for uncertainty intimidates him. So he relies on mysticism. He believes in a supernatural being. And the whole idea of innate endowment is just an extrapolation of that.

When man tries to learn something, and when he makes mistakes or face failures in the beginning; self-doubt breeds in his mind. He asks himself, I am good for this? Am I talented for this? But, he never asks what can he do to negate these mistakes? He simply gives up by thinking that he is not gifted to do these things, instead of trying hard for it.

Conclusion

The only thing that is preventing you to become something is you — your philosophical view of life, your beliefs, etc. I still don’t have any regrets that I didn’t qualify that PhD interview. In fact, I am glad that I didn’t qualify; otherwise, I shouldn’t have had this realisation. It helped me to diversify my identity and improve myself. If I had qualified that interview, I might not have that realisation and you wouldn’t be reading this now. You see, roadblocks happen in our lives. But it is up to us to respond to those roadblocks; you can either blame your life, or do something to change it since you have the power of volition. I believe that every fucking person has potential inside him to become anything he wants; he just have to bring it out. All you need is the strong desire, time, perseverance to acquire a skill, not the some “inborn talent”.

Suggested reading: Philosophy: who needs it, Ayn Rand