Category: Uncategorized

The Past, Present & Future


It is said the past is history and the future is mystery.  We do not know what the present holds for us.  In the cycle of life, the future becomes present even before we realise it and the past whizzes behind us and becomes the present.  If we look at ourselves and reflect on our own life we realise that the past, present and future is a journey.

We look at the past and rejoice on the perfect moments and look at the future with hope and anticipation.  The present is ephemeral.  We live it many a time without realising how it slips betweeen our hands.  The past can be recollected but the future cannot be predicted.  The present is journey to be lived to be realised.  Historians can comment on the past and the Futurolosist can anticipate the future but the present is reclusive of any predictions.

If we reflect in our own life, we realise that we cherish the past and anticipate the future.  Many a time we recall our childhood and re live the moments of happiness.  We plan for the future but realise it is unpredictable.  We live in the present many a time by celebrating the past or worrying about the future.  Why do we not celebrate the present as we pass through it every day ?

The future becomes the present even before we know it.  While we spend a lot of a time in looking back at the past and rejoicing it, we do not plan enough for the future.  This results in the future rushing into the present for us.  Ideally, we could enjoy the past but if we are able to anticipate and prepare for the future, the present becomes fun.

Lets look at our own past, present and future.  We share stories of our past with kids.  We share successes and enviable stories of accomplishments in academics, sports and cultural activities.  We tend to be oblivious of the future and many a time take it for granted till some challenge beseeches us.  Thus the present becomes insurmountable and we do not enjoy it.

It may be easy to celebrate the past but difficult to anticipate the future.  Some religious leaders tell us that the past and the future is fateful.  In my view, everything is in our hands.  If we live life, the way we want to and put in our best foot forward, the past evolves into the present and paves the way for the future.  Neither, the past is unpredictable nor the future is unimaginable.

My life mantra has to been to never regret the past nor worry about the future.  We need to learn to live in the present.  We cannot re write the past nor fully predict the future.  But the present is in our grip.  We tend to live the present by looking at the past or worrying about the future.  This drains our energy and thus we are not able to celebrate our every day life.

Like in the photo above, we need to live in the present and learn from the children around us.

Let us celebrate the past, live the present and plan for the future.

S Ramesh Shankar

Personality versus Character


One of my young talented and aspiring colleague once asked me as to “how do we build our social image” ?  He requested me to write about it.  I was wondering where to begin and where to end.  But thanks to the social media today, I got a forward of a beautiful quote, which reads as ” Personality is what we do when everyone is watching” and “Character is what we do when nobody is watching”.  This gave me an insight to write on this subject.

All of us have two faces in life.  We have an external face, which we show to the world and we have an inner face, which we guard inside us.  We try our best to guard the internal face so that it is visible only to our near and dear ones. The external face is public and can be seen by the world.  This duality in our life defines our personality.  So, our personality is something which everyone watches and our character is something, which is intrinsic. It manifests itself during adversities in our life.

Let us start from school.  We want to be seen as the best behaved student, good in academics and sports.  We want to be the best behaved child in front of our teachers and our parents.  We want the world to talk about us all the time.  But, how do we behave when nobody watches us.  If we face a tempting situation do we fall prey to the temptation.  Many of us may have stolen cash from our parents wallet to fulfill our unfulfilled desires due to lack of adequate pocket money.  Would we do it in front of our parents.  

This nature continues in our college days.  We grow up in age but less in maturity.  We continue to impress the people whom we want to in our life.  But our inner self is always a bit different than our outer self.  We zealously guard our inner image to ourselves.  We do not want the world to look down upon us as a cheat or a person, who betrays someone’s trust.

Then we get into a job.  We gradually mature.  We still want create the best first impressions.   The two faces of our personality continues although may be less conspicuous.  We gradually try to bridge the gap but our social image is far more important than our actual image as we realise it.  We are different at home and at work or at least try to be.  Although difficult, our facards continue in adequate display at work.  Our image with team members, peers and bosses are different.

It is this struggle all of us go through in life and it is real.  We need to accept this reality as inevitable.  We could try to bridge this gap between “Personality” and “Character” – the outer and inner image of ourselves.  The only way I have learnt to bridge this gap is to reduce the gap between what we say and what we do.  It is difficult but not impossible to achieve.  Some of us may take longer than other to bridge this gap.  But it is attainable.  The earlier we realise this the better for our personal growth.

It is like in the photo above the personality of the person is like the mask worn by the person and the character is the face behind the mask not visible to us. 

All of us are human and hence there is nothing wrong to realise that all of us have a gap.  The margins may differ but none of us are perfect.  The good news is that it is possible to bridge the gap if we try to do so.

Can we start the journey today ?
S Ramesh Shankar

New year reflections


A year passes by and we look back to reflect on what happened.  You are happy with some events and sad with others.  You look at the new year with hope. A new year is like the morning sun, which brings hope and light to life every day.  The old year is like the sun set, which fades into the past but still gives you the hope that the sun rise the next day will dawn new aspirations in your life.

While many of us pass new resolutions to exercise regularly, go to the gym or lose weight or visit parents, we tend to break them even before the dust settles on them.  Is it a weakness or the lack of will ?  I do not know but neither I want to. It is better to keep resolving till the day one is able to keep up to them rather than no resolutions at all.

I am a born optimist and hence never give up.  I may have made hundreds of resolutions in my life and may be fulfilled half of them.  It is a joy to make promises to yourselves and try to keep them up.  So what if we fail in some.  It is always better to try then to give up even before you make them.  A simple example could be that I tried to do yoga every day for many years and failed every single time.  But two years back I went to learn yoga in a authentic school in Lonavala and the teacher was so good that she inspired me to do it every day.  Today my wife and me practise it almost daily and voluntarily.

While every day can be a new year, why do we wait for the new year to resolve ?  It may be like having food every day, which we do religiously.  But, we have special food only on festive days.  A new year is a symbol of something new.  It helps us to pause and reflect.  It helps us to forget and forgive.  It helps us to commit more than we can deliver.

I love the new year.  It helps us to forget the miseries of the past.  It infuses hope and optimism in us.  It gives us reasons to believe that tomorrow may be better than yesterday and today.  It re kindles our wishes.  It gives us renewed energy to resolve.  It compels us to move on in life.  It is like the clock, which never stops until we forget to rewind or change the batteries.

It is up to us to rewind and recharge ourselves.  Nothing is permanent in life.  Neither joy nor sorrow will sustain forever.  Our ability to forget and forgive the past and hope for a better future will help us maintain balance in life. The dawn of the new year gives us an opportunity to do so.  It is an occasion to look back and move forward. 

The new year is like the morning dew in a forest.  It is ephemeral.  It is fresh.  It refreshes you and give you a chance to renew yourselves.  It is up to us to take charge and do it.  As the sun opens up in the sky, the morning dew is gone.  The same is with the new year.  As the days pass, the year is gone and we have to wait for yet another new year.

Let us wake up and resolve today

S Ramesh Shankar