Importance of English.

I’m one of those who always kept questioning, why is English important? Why can’t we be happy by just knowing Hindi? Why do we need to learn a foreign language when we have our own?

It took a while for me to realize but English is important. Now I’ve a good reason to believe it. English is the universal language. A language that goes past all geographical barriers and helps us communicate.

English helps us read not just Indian texts but the the history of all world nations. We can learn from Mahatma Gandhi as well as Nelson Mandela because both of them knew English and people who were alive in their time knew English. They wrote what they saw and today because of them we know what Gandhi ji and Mandela sir stood for.

Knowing this global language empowers you. You can communicate to the whole world all at once if you know how to speak in English.

Let’s for once forget the British relation to English and start appreciating the closeness it has brought to the world. Our planet is basically a small village, all of whose residents can communicate using English.

For example take this blog, this blog can be read in foreign countries as well as it can be read by Indians. The reach of a piece written or spoken in English is immense.

Let’s accept it, English is important and start focusing more on how to make it our tool to make the world our audience.

-ChoubeySahab

Overthinking is bad.

Remember when they said excess of anything is bad, they meant thinking also. There’s a reason why I’m saying this because most of us don’t know that doing excess of thinking can be bad.

Overthinking is much more complex even than overeating. When you overeat, you start feeling full and the need to stop eating but for thinking there’s no limit. You just don’t know when and how much to think about someone/something.

This is also the reason why I think our generation is mentally crippled. It is because we over think a lot. We don’t know what deserves what amount of thought.

I find myself being no different and was actively looking for a solution to overthinking. The answer I found was in worrying less about everything and making myself believe that I’m just a normal human who doesn’t need to be thinking 24/7. I made myself realize how ignorant of my surroundings had I become because of tech.

The only effective way to detach myself from all those noisy thoughts was meditation. I don’t like meditation very much as it shuts up all voices in your head and you are left with complete silence but that silence is what will help you not overthink.

You overthink a lot, I’m telling you this because you wont know it on your own because your stomach doesn’t start to swell like when you overeat. Give yourself some good headspace to think about the relevant and important.

-ChoubeySahab

Polymath or specialist.

There are 2 types of people:

1. Polymath- the ones who are good at multiple things but expert at none.

2. Specialist- the ones who are too good at 1 thing.

Now that we know what being a polymath and specialist means. Next we look at what is better and what should you aim to become.

We can’t really say which one is better because both have a critical role to play in the workings of our society.

Coming onto what should you aim to be? A person who knows a bit about different things or one who is an expert at 1 thing.

This depends on person to person. If you’re someone who has varied interests then you should aim to be a polymath.

For eg, say you’re interested in sports, cooking, coding, public speaking then you should be a polymath wherein you try to do good at each one of them. You love them all equally and choosing one out of them would be difficult. So you become a polymath.

If you’re interested in 1 thing, and just one things and you want to go deeper and deeper into that thing. Then you should consider becoming a specialist in that field. A person who has all the knowledge about this one thing. It could be oration or writing or playing or singing.

Talking about my own self, I find myself falling into the polymath criteria better. I like writing, sports, technology, oration and I love them all equally. Hence, I try to be good at each one of them. I may never become a specialist is any but I won’t regret that.

Which criteria do you find yourself in-

That of a polymath or a specialist.

-ChoubeySahab

The case with Snapchat.

A company which almost shot into the lives of every American teenager when it first launched. The reason for this massive success were disappearing snaps which expire in 24 hours after uploading.

Everyone loved the idea of photos automatically getting deleted from the platform after 24 hours. People no longer had to stare at a picture for hours, judging if it is worth posting or not because anyway it’ll disappear in a day.

But then Instagram saw Snapchat taking away it’s audience just because of one feature. So Instagram told it’s users-hey wait, we’ll get the feature here for you. Hence, Instagram story was born.

Now that Instagram has stories along with posts and chat. Snapchat is stripped of it’s uniqueness. What followed for Snapchat is a steep downslide in the number of users and market value.

Though Snapchat somehow managed to keep the early teen population because of the more interesting snap filters and personalized stickers.

The company is struggling to keep up with the expectations it raised in it’s early days. To survive in the competitive social media landscape, Snapchat will need to come up with something as interesting and unique as disappearing snaps.

In my view, I still believe Snapchat will do well given the appeal it has to the younger kids. If you’ve not tried Snapchat as yet, you should definitely give it a shot.

After all, Snapchat redifined social media.

-ChoubeySahab

Sitting on the table.

Oh wait. Tables aren’t for sitting. But well this is what this blog is about. Doing things which aren’t normal and some may even call it wrong.

We have a natural tendency to do things like everyone else is doing. We follow the herd. It gives us a sense of security that what we are doing is safe as so many are doing the same thing.

But there’s a downside of doing what everyone else is doing. You’ll get what everyone else is getting. Expecting mangoes while having sown apple seeds is foolish.

We all want over the top results by doing the normal stuff. The thing that we need to understand is over the top results require over the top effort. An effort which is different and more intense than all others.

Try doing things differently. Try sitting on the table when there’s an empty chair. Try not following the herd. Try breaking the rules.

There is a price to be paid for getting amazing results, this price is of uncertainty. Because when you do things differently, there’s always the risk of you doing it wrong. But if you get it right then you’d get big results.

I believe what is even the joy of living when we live with fear of being wrong. Why not live to the fullest? Why not make mistakes? Why not sit on the table?

Start living the unconventional way. Take some bold potentially wrong decisions in life. Then you’ll know what it actually feels to be alive.

-ChoubeySahab

Keeping it short.

Many of you ask me-why do I call these micro blogs? Why do I keep it short?

There is a good reason behind this. Most writers including many of you, don’t wish to write long texts, this is because writing long would require to go deep into any issue.

Research has shown that the avg mean attention span of humans is 4-5 seconds. Writing long stuff will require much more than normal attention from readers.

Keeping it short forces me to stick to the topic and not linger around. It also helps me in keeping the blogs consistent. 1 micro blog everyday sound more doable than 1 full size blog each day.

The word micro in blog gives an impression in the mind of the reader that it is only going to take a moment to read while offering a ton of value in return.

Like right now, you’re almost through this micro blog while just reading about how important it is to set achievable sounding goals and more than that-making people believe that you’re worth their attention.

The fact that at least 30 people read these blogs on insta eveyday, out of which at least 20 rate to let me know how did I write. Another 50 people read through links shared on Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and we even Snapchat.

This translates into around 80 people reading my self written blogs in a single day. Isn’t this amazing? Being able to share my thoughts and feelings with so many people everyday.

All of this would not be done if these blogs were not short. Taking a minute out of your day to read a micro blog is easier than reading a big ass blog post.

Keeping it short helps more people read and benefit.

Here I abort this blog because you know we gotta keep it short.

-ChoubeySahab

Why do I believe in God?

This is the question I am asking myself. I have no proof/evidence of there being a power above us all controlling everything we do. Then how can a logic oriented person still believe in God.

Then it hit me that I believe in God because my parents believe in God. Ever since I was born, I saw them worshipping idols and pictures of what they called god. I believed them without asking for logic just like I believed them when they told me about my sister, I didn’t go and get a blood test done to prove that she’s actually my sister. I simply believed them.

But now that I’m a grown up do I doubt if she’s actually my sister. No I don’t. I still believe that she’s my sister. Same is with god, I don’t question if God is real or not. I just believe it is because that’s what is engrained in my head.

This is less to do with god being real or fake and more to do with what beliefs do I hold. Beliefs don’t require any logic. You can believe that Rahul Gandhi will be the next PM and no one can stop you from believing that.

Similarly believing in God is my choice. I don’t need any logic to believe in God. Just like I don’t want my sister to prove that she’s my sister by getting a DNA test done.

Now, I know that I believe in God because my parents believed in God and they believed in God because their parents believed in God and this goes back to where this all started.

This world is run by beliefs and not by logic.

A day without the idea of God and this world would collapse on it’s face.

-ChoubeySahab

Peace of mind is a piece of mind

In all the noise of the digital world, one thing that’s lacking is peace of mind. Our minds are constantly running into how many likes has the last post gathered, how many have seen my story and are there any texts from anyone.

All these things constantly keep our heads occupied but at some point we realize that we seriously need some peace of mind. A mind which isn’t thinking about likes, comments, etc etc. A mind which is all by itself left to think about the real world.

Peace of mind isn’t easy to achieve. Some even meditate to get peace of mind. But first what is peace- it is a state of mind where you have control over what you think about.

Now, you’re thinking, of course I control what I’m think about. The bitter truth is that you don’t. The notifications with that pop sound in your phone control your thoughts.

If there’s a text, get distracted, reply. Someone has commented something, get distracted, give a cool reply.

All this has got us a bit too engrossed and at end of it, frankly, we’ve lost control.

How to get this control/peace back?

One good way is to shut off the notifications from social media apps. In my case even my WhatsApp notifications are turned off. This ensures that I see your text when I have time to see your text, not whenever you text. This gives a lot of control over my time.

Less notifications mean less distraction, less distraction means more control which in turn gives peace of mind.

A mind which you have a control over and not a silly pop sound.

Peace of mind is a piece of mind that you need to find out and start harnessing it’s power before it’s too late.

-ChoubeySahab

Happy, not happy!

I’m writing this one to figure out the much vague idea around happiness. What is happiness after all? Is it getting a 7 digit salary and owning a big lavish bunglow or is it in eating ice-cream in freezing winter.

Is happiness because of money or is money a byproduct of happiness. Unfortunately or fortunately, money in whatever amount, cannot buy happiness.

Happiness is a feeling even the poorest of the poor can experience. God was super kind and sensible to detach money and happiness.

Today when everyone is trying to make more money. Noone knows the way to make oneself happier. So we conveniently run after money and believe that this will ultimately lead to happiness.

But it doesn’t happen that way. Happiness is a choice you make in your head. You choose be happy or sad by doing things which you love or hate.

You would say that success makes one feel happy, so money is correlated to happiness. No it’s not, you can be super successful in the eyes of the society but if you don’t love what you do then this success has no meaning for you.

Lastly how and where happiness can be found? It can be simply found in making a child smile, doing the dishes at home to help your mum and even simply thinking about a favourable future.

All these cost you nothing but the happiness derived from each one is something no amount of money can buy.

Don’t get too blind in earning big money that you forget that ultimately all you want in life is satisfaction and happiness.

Nothing more, nothing less.

-ChoubeySahab

Intellectual humility.

Firstly, what is humility? It is the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance. In other words humility is the ability not to be overconfident of what one knows.

Now, what is intellectual humility? It is having a flexible (not rigid) view on any issue, however much you may know about it.

This intellectual humility is what I see seriously lacking in most of us. We do all it takes to fight back to win an argument because we think what we know it correct. While if we were intellectually modest then we would be patient enough to hear the other side out and try to understand their logic behind the view they hold.

The lack of it is majorly evident in the political sphere in India. There are rightists and leftists. They keep fighting on every topic of political concern. This is because of the rigidity of their intellect which is not flexible enough to accommodate different views.

Intellectual humility is the only way to start appreciating the multi-dimensional aspect of any useful piece of information.

Take feminism for example, there are people who rigidly support feminism and reject every other argument. Again lack of appreciating different views is the problem.

Can’t we just hold our views while having respect for others’ views without fighting it out on social media sites? Can’t we accept that there are multiple ways of looking at any given thing? Can’t we we be vulnerable of the worthiness of what we know?

The solution to all this comes down to having a patient ear for opposing views. Whenever you come across a different view than yours, the first thing you need to do is ask the other person to explain the logic behind their view. While what most of us actually do is to fight for defending our view right away.

Accept the fact that you can be wrong at what you think is right. I repeat, accept the fact that you can be wrong at what you think is right.

The only way to do this is by listening different views out and trying to indulge in healthy meaningful conversations. Conversation in which there is absolutely no space for swearing. Conversation which helps both individuals grow in knowledge.

Being an intellect is not enough. Garnish it with humility and you make the most delicious dessert for yourself and the society we all live it.

-ChoubeySahab