Whispers of Solitude - Amit Ahlawat

100 AMAZING
UNSPOKEN
TRUTHS
AMIT AHLAWAT

Preface
‘100 Amazing Unspoken Truths’ is a secret revealing non-fiction. It talks about
those usual yet subtle aspects of life which are largely overlooked by the
majority.
This overlooking happens owing to our socio-politico-economic conditioning
over the past several decades. This subconscious training of our minds leads us
to accept status quo as the only truth prevailing in our lives.
What we miss in the process are a plethora of daily experienced but
unarticulated truths. As they are not recognized, these truths tend to be left
ignored and impact our lives adversely due to not being managed.
Therefore this book has been written in an attempt to make us aware of these
equally prevalent facts and avoid us from the partial management trap of our
immediate environment.
Some such facts which have been talked about are related to the existing,
flawed and biased notions about childhood, adulthood, learning, jobs and
careers, spirituality, habits, possibilities, early man, reading, body language,
eye contact, education, ego, self-respect, common sense, leadership, reverse
growth, reality, life, health and diseases, regression, business, politics, humour,
love, truth, productivity, happiness, money, intelligence, miracles, faith,
friendship, loneliness, solitude, sex, emotions, anger, personality, sports,
fetish, thinking, social health, destiny, adventure, salvation, smoking, half truth
and lies, emotional intelligence, needs, wants, desires, passion, social circles,
past, present, future, brain, simplicity versus complexity, economy, recessions,
marketing and sales, intent, character, knowledge, skill, attitude, after-life, re-
births, souls, sixth sense, aliens, black-holes, animals, motivation, insanity,
goals, focus, journey, extroversion, introversion, self-doubt, self-confidence,
over-confidence, interviews, materialism, ethics, beliefs, values, information,
hard work, smart work, decision making, power, authority, responsibility, déjà
vu, law, aging, reverse aging, loss of identity, acting profession, science,
engineering and technology.

What is the line of demarcation between
childhood and adulthood?
Childhood and Adulthood are two ideal states of being. No one is a perfect
child or an adult by definition.
A growing child learns fast and starts gaining physical features of adulthood
like beard, growth of genitals and huskiness in voice in males and growth of
genitals and menstruation in females. Behavioural features like sense of
awareness, responsibility, control and an attitude of social adaptability begin
to be displayed.
A new-born child on the other hand is like an outlier far away from the normal
distribution bell curve. She doesn’t know language and physical movement and
doesn’t have a sense of protection or danger to begin with. A child
understands love and warmth very well though, as it is a highly prominent
need of the child.
Learning is in fact the only legible criterion to define the growth of an
individual. Both the rate as well as the quality of learning matter to this effect.
A child is our spontaneous, curious and flamboyant self while an adult is our
calm, focused and composed self. A child develops understanding, gets
exposure, takes risks and chances in life to build the life of her dreams and
lives it simultaneously as an adult.
Society is plagued with more pre-conceived than logical notions around
adulthood, including but not limited to sexual potency, physical strength,
aggression, social conformance, wealth, power and the ability to control and
manipulate others. All of the above are wrong notions of adulthood. A sensible
adult would never prove a point to others but only to self.
It’s standing by one’s own beliefs, values and ideals, no matter what the
situation is what defines a man or a woman of substance. Learning bits are the
building blocks of our beliefs, values and ideals and therefore our very
existence/sense of being. An adult is therefore characterized by the rate and
quality of his/her learning endeavours and the ability to build new

relationships and formal partnerships. Remember, adulthood or growth is
independent of success or failure in the endeavours of life. In fact, a failed
adult is stronger and the more courageous one and would be of real value
during crisis times.
Complacency, arrogance, politics and egoism drift an adult in to becoming a
spoilt character. It happens when we stop learning and indulge and revel in a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Learning teaches us to know better, do better, become better, love better and
become a more balanced individual. Responsible, grown-up individuals are
determined to achieve their immediate goals. Goals are what define life for
them at that very moment. They prioritize the long term goals in a logically
studied out manner.
A healthy adult would also discretionally support others in need of genuine
help and forge long term and healthy relationships and partnerships. S/he
would innovate to add value to society.
Being an adult doesn’t mean the child inside is dead. It means that the child co-
exists with the adult and both proliferate through learning and enjoyment
respectively.
Parenthood is another sense of being which involves inputs from both the child
as well as the adult within.
A healthy adult nurtures and teaches the child inside. Meanwhile the adult
lives and enjoys life by doing what keeps him/her happy.
A healthy adult has a greater personal space than a child. Neither of the two is
good or bad. Our child side is more emotion-based while an adult would
operate on logic, common sense and a sense of agreement and disagreement
in the form of an individual opinion over an issue of importance.
To conclude, childhood and adulthood cannot be separated or differentiated.
They coexist best in equilibrium. More than performance in bed, adulthood is
performance in life.

Why some people are called insane and put
in to asylum? Are they really insane?
Insanity can be of two types:
1. Socially Disruptive Behaviour
2. Socially Radical Behaviour
Radical means something very unusual, different or fresh. Disruptive means
potentially lethal, damaging or threatening.
While I endorse to the idea of arresting type 1 insane in to the asylum, the type
2 is not really insane. Type 1 is wild while type 2 is distressed due to a genuine
issue like lack of like minded company, loss of a loved one, the yearning to be
different etc.
Insanity can get triggered off because of too much of:
1. Stress
2. Loneliness
3. Depression
4. Stretching in work or shift timings
5. Lack of sleep
6. Torture or bullying
7. Pressure from near and dear ones
8. Not taking adequate care of self
9. A sense of inferiority complex
10.Leadership/Potential
11.Trauma due to loss of a loved one or a prized possession
12.Mental disability by birth
A deliberate mistake or offence leads to type-1 insanity down to the asylum;
however it’s really difficult to differentiate type-2 insanity from type-1. Due to
lack of this much-needed differentiation, society treats type-1 and type-2 at
par, which is a grave injustice to the type-2.

Who knows, there might be a leader or a talent hidden among type-2, which is
far more likely owing to their nobler intentions and sincerity by nature.
Therefore we as a responsible society need to collectively revisit the notion of
insanity and need to make it more specific rather than generalizing it.
And for God’s sake let’s stop calling such people as insane. Rather, let’s call
them differently-abled.
To conclude, let’s learn to embrace difference and diversity with an open mind
and heart. Sometimes the folly occurs on our collective side and the entire
damage is borne by the differently-abled individuals. Let’s strive to be more
specific and help such people out rather than abandoning them.

How were our ancestors different from us?
The earliest Homo sapiens race is estimated to be about 5000 years old,
according to anthropologists.
Before that we had the species of the evolving apes learning to civilize in to
communities. They would live as nomads, wanderers and would thrive on flesh
and fish (cooked or uncooked) and fruits. Agriculture was not known.
It seems hard to believe that mankind began its proliferation only a few
thousand years on an Earth billions of years old. There are missing links,
certainly.
Let’s see the possibility that there was a human race millions of years back as
well. And that race was highly advanced. Then happened the science and
knowledge dissolution due to some natural disaster and humanity had to start
from scratch again.
In numerous religious and mythological scriptures, we have references to
these early humans:
1. They had a life spanning thousands of years
2. They were taller and larger in build and stronger than modern men
3. They had more natural abilities, such as manifesting thoughts, feelings or
imagination in to matter like gold or an event like thunderstorm
4. They were much more learnt and had different paradigms of existence. The
art of telepathy, physical magnification or diminution, and invisibility could
therefore be possible during those times
5. Even between a friend and a foe, the personal space would not be
intruded. Rather there would be formally agreed upon battles with strict
code of conduct.
6. Principles and words of men would matter more than wealth or power.
Curses and boons could be explained using this theory, wherein a mantra
recited would convert the electromagnetic energy of the sound waves in to
a potent force that would manifest in to the curse or the boon by virtue of
its very design.

7. Sattva, Tamas and Rajas – the three gunas make for an interesting piece of
study. The Demigods were the supposed epitome of Sattva, the demons
that of Tamas and humans mostly Rajas, though they could well learn to
move to Sattva or Tamas through intense and disciplined meditation
(Tapasya) and focus of internal energy (spiritual and will-power).
To conclude, the modern human race has so much to learn and catch up to. On
a relative scale, we seem to be lagging far behind our ancestors.

Do aliens exist?
There have been debatable sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)
several times on Earth. However no alien has actually come out of the flying
saucer and talked to us humans or even showed his face.
There are secret places earmarked by the governments as ‘Danger Zones’ or
‘Military Area’ where the UFOs are said to land.
The Great Pyramids of Egypt, several temples of India and south-east Asia, the
sketches carved by early men on cave walls and several other monuments of
historical and mythological importance suggest so much and more. Not all of it
could have been the figment of human imagination.
Renowned authors too have discussed at length about extra-terrestrial life in
their books. One theory simultaneously explains the highly unequal
distribution of wealth in world economy as well as the supposed presence of
aliens disguised as humans since centuries on Earth.
The theory in question says that the people of crucial political, economic or
social influence are actually aliens of a reptile like specie. They don’t want to
kill the real, under-privileged humans but want to control them and rule over
them.
The powerful cartel of these aliens supposedly operates and meets secretly to
ensure power and wealth remain in their hands.
Shocking, isn’t it? Who knows how many secrets the world is full of, after all?
We the scientists have barely moved out of the solar system. The probability of
existence of extra-terrestrial life just can’t be refuted straight away. There is
already plenty of curiosity generated by the daily excavation and spatial
findings.
We don’t know what percentage of science we know as of date. Knowledge on
Earth really seems to be minute compared to what the universe has in store.
Till the time our technology advances such that we can at least reach
Andromeda, I think we would need to keep our mouths shut.

To conclude, let’s hope one of our future generations meets an alien species
and let the desired reality prevail. The aliens should be more advanced and a
believer in peace so we learn from them and collaborate.
Such a day would overturn the dynamics and sensibilities of the entire world in
a span of few hours. Let’s hope that happens!

Why is smoking addictive?
So many people smoke. Nicotine is harmful to the lungs and the body. Chances
of contracting cancer of the lung, throat or blood increases manifold. Still,
people smoke. Why?
An adult smokes for instantaneous relief from stress. S/he may also smoke just
to pump the mood up or even to celebrate a moment of happiness or
contentment. Sometimes adults smoke just to kill time (like when in a train)
when they can’t do much else.
Women have been heard to say guys make more sense when they smoke. So
what’s the science behind this smoking of cigarettes?
When we inhale smoke from a burning cigarette, it passes through our lungs in
to the blood stream and in to the brain.
Nicotine energises the brain cells by acting as a stimulant and we feel on a
high. This gives a feeling of momentary bliss.
Chronically depressed people are chain smokers for precisely this reason.
Smoking actually helps them get out of depression and sooner so.
Now let’s see the flip side. The brain cells and the body become habitual and
dependent upon nicotine for routine stimulation. So it becomes difficult to
control the craving when we get one and don’t smoke.
Chain smokers of several years would often need to visit a deaddictionologist
to undergo rehabilitation as they attempt to quit. Once a habit, quitting
smoking is not easy but isn’t impossible either.
Talking about the younger lot, a lot of college goers smoke either for fun or
they copy their smoker friends. Non-smokers are often tempted to indulge in
smoking.
The graph of a smoker’s frequency versus time would be a rising curve. This
means if a smoker begins with 2 cigarettes/day today, it’s highly probable s/he
would be at 4 or 6 cigarettes/day next year and 6 or 8 cigarettes/day the year

post that. Sub-consciously following this trend, a few people would reach 20
cigarettes/day.
Some youngsters feel that smoking makes them ‘manly’. I believe they are
wronged because manhood is defined by learning and inter-personal skills and
smoking has nothing to do with either of them. Smoking may cause a gradual
rise in their level of self-confidence but it would not motivate them to keep
learning.
A happy mind learns fast, true. But then even having a chocolate makes you
happy. That is a reason why kids are a happier lot than smoker adults.
This leads me to conclude that smoking is a trap, a maze, a vicious cycle. Enter
at your own risk!

Dogs make sense. Men don’t. Why?
Dogs can’t speak. They can’t think. But they can sense very well.
They know when the food is nearby, coming their way. They know when they
are going to be loved and when they are going to be thrashed. They have
mesmerising and peculiar sounds for the respective gifting.
Dogs don’t change their stands easily. Men do.
Dogs are either playfully happy or they run berserk trying to protect their
master by fending off enemy dogs.
Dogs can’t think but they can feel very well. Naked and adorable to the human
eyes as they are, everyone wants to touch them. They stay uncomfortable
without a doubt.
Men on the other hand live a complicated life away from common sense. They
would think about what others think about them and then try to meet those
expectations. They would be egoistic and arrogant and look for opportunities
to prove a point to others. They would love to show off how ‘knowledgeable’
or ‘intelligent’ they are.
Dogs know only love and food. They would not know the crap of humans. It’s
not their business after all and they know that.
Dogs would stand on two feet in the wee hours of the morning, reaching
usually higher than the hips of their masters. They intend to persuade their
master to provide breakfast. Their long, salivating tongues would stick out in
anticipation of the food. They know it’s important.
Do men know the importance of food? We get food easily, so no. We get sleep
easily, so we sweat it out at work longer than required, trying to appease our
bosses. Why do we choose to become the Pavlov’s favourite tool, wagging our
imaginary tails to the bosses?
Dogs eat food and men eat money. Dogs digest their food well and doze off in
a shady corner of their locality while men end up constipating over money.

And a day comes when men grow sick. They have a belly grown and a forehead
with a frown. “What have I done?” is what they ask to themselves and to
everyone else.
They stand in amazement over their rushed stupidity as the old dogs retire
peacefully into oblivion.
Point is that the dogs realize where they have to be, at what time, doing what
and with whom. Men know none of it.
And that’s precisely the problem!

Who are language rapists?
If you and I don’t talk sense, we are language rapists. Language was always
meant to facilitate comprehension. But it has been misused to mess the social
structure up.
The body language accounts for about 90% of comprehension while spoken
words enable less than 10%. Ironically, 90% emphasis is given to spoken words.
Body language on the other hand lies unnoticed at a distant corner of the
messed up human observational skills.
Listening has gone extinct. We have raped the language in parts and won the
‘psycho-rapist’ tag for ourselves.
Sweet words. Harsh words. Soft words. Instructional words. Pleasant words.
Buttering words. There are so many varieties of them available in the market.
People pick for free what they want and misuse it. Sweet is therefore sarcastic.
Buttering is selfish. Soft is taken for granted. Harsh is rude or offensive.
Instructional is cool for some and irritating for others. Indeed there is a fish
market of words.
The body language sobs silently as we play with words. Vibes and virtues are
antiques of the past. Vices and pretentions are the in-things.
Only what comes across as believable sells. What is true doesn’t. Love is also
raped daily. Confessions are public. Separations are private.
The body writhes in pain pleading for justice as we revel in showing off our
speaking skills. Interviews and interviewers stand a testimony. Tell them what
they want to listen and not the truth.
There is no penalty for raping the language. Hugs and kisses have become the
antiques of the past. Slang and slander are the in-things.
It’s cool to distort the language according to whims and fancies. On the top of
it, minding your language is not cool. You would become not-so-cool if you do.
People have begun to excrete from the mouth and swallow from the anus. I
still wonder how they have managed to do that.

They stink. And they stink hard. The rapists, I mean.

Can we learn entire life in a lifespan?
Although there is nothing impossible in this world, life is much beyond world.
Complete life can’t be learnt perfectly in a lifespan. Life is infinite and beyond
possibilities. Beyond what exists, life still prevails.
We begin learning as a new-born child by responding to external stimuli,
learning language and walking. Then we begin mingling with the society to
acquire social conformance. We acquire education to improve our quality of
life, a quality that knows no limits.
We can therefore live only a shade of life at best. Life is a portrait-less white
canvass on which we can sketch multiple portraits but we can’t draw
everything.
I hope the canvass analogy drives home the point. Let’s imagine life to be an
infinite jigsaw puzzle. You can’t even strategize in life to begin with. To
strategize you need a reference or the first risk in your life. That is the first
jigsaw piece you picked up. Yes, now you have a reference.
Complete the puzzle and set limits beyond which you define the puzzle as out
of your scope.
Suppose you arrange 100 jigsaw pieces of a puzzle to give you the portrait of a
hard-working woodcutter. You either stop there or you arrange 900 more
pieces around to build a house, the stream, family, the hill etc. along with the
woodcutter. You can’t portray the entire world or universe is what I mean.
Looking at micro level, life is like a game of chess. One wrong move and you
are caught on the back foot vis-à-vis the external environment. You learn from
your mistakes, try harder and win over the hurdle with your innovative moves.
Because you learnt from the experience, the next move onwards you see
incremental improvements in the quality of your moves. You would know by
now the roles of the queen, the knight, the bishop and also that you are the
sole king of your life.
Events in life can be pre-destined or adventurous. It’s entirely our choice. Life
is a choice every moment.

It’s important to serve the self first before setting out to help others. Because
nothing is impossible doesn’t mean it’s unimportant to gain practical
experience and resonate and proliferate with the contemporary society.
To conclude, don’t try to learn life. Learn it better than your present self. Be as
specific as possible, pick what you like and pursue it meticulously. Don’t let
your victory become a hollow one. Make it an inspirational story. Chances are
that you will learn a relatively larger portion of life.

Is life full of problems or possibilities?
It’s up to us whether we choose to see life as full of challenges or
opportunities. It’s looking at the same coin from different sides.
A problem is nothing but a perspective. If majority subscribes to that
problematic perspective (for example, poverty, inflation, pollution,
unemployment etc.) then it makes sense to recognize it as a problem with
impact quantified.
Otherwise it’s better to call the same as opportunity, scope for improvement
or innovation.
When we have a vision and work proactively towards it, we take precautionary
measures to prevent certain problems from arising in the first place.
Problems are relative. One person might want to reach a career CTC of INR 20
LPA by 10th
year of experience. He can choose to define the desire as a
problem statement as under:
‘To identify barriers to salary raise, study them, analyze the causes and
mitigate their impact on my career.’
For another person, ensuring a 3-meal day for the family might be the problem
area. He would then define the problem as:
‘To ensure family survival and avoid malnutrition by working consistently in a
secure mode of employment.’
If he is an opportunist he would instead define the situation as:
‘To move to the next level of financial status by planning and starting own low
investment and low risk business. The business has a sense of uniqueness and I
possess the requisite skill-set to run the business. In the process, I exercise my
best chance to elevate my financial position to the next level.’
There are also people who create opportunities. Such a perspective requires:
1. An open state of mind
2. Independent and creative thinking

3. Great research ability
4. Meticulous planning competency
5. Flawless execution power
For example, a prisoner may think he can’t do anything in life being in prison.
However another prisoner may prepare and execute a routine chart as follows:
1. Wake up at 6 AM
2. Meditate for 30 minutes
3. Exercise at mini gym for 1 hour
4. Have a heavy breakfast
5. Contribute to prison activities till 11 AM
6. Read Arthur Conan Doyle till 1 PM
7. Take lunch
8. Write your own book till 5 PM
9. Socialise with other members, play games and hold discussions till 8 PM
10.Have dinner
11.Meditate and sleep
To conclude, no one can ever stop us from living the life of our dreams except
ourselves. There is nothing impossible in this world.

Why do we learn and get educated?
Education is the most important pillar of life. An uneducated man is a wild
beast. With education, man learns to improve the quality of life and become
more civilized.
When we have taken birth, it’s imperative to lead a fulfilling life. Goals define
life. A goal may be defined as the destination where we want to steer our life
based on certain benchmarks.
The journey is also important. Make sure you enjoy the journey while you
proceed towards your goal.
Education comprises of 3 stages:
1. Know yourself and your subjects of expertise well
2. Practice your field work with excellence as the sole motto
3. Become a learned person by embracing change
In this 3-stage process all the steps are important and run simultaneously. They
keep running all the time, subconsciously or consciously.
It’s always better to control your direction and movement in life so we learn
what, when, where, why and how we want to.
For example a mechanical engineer by virtue of his education ought to know
about mechanics, thermodynamics, material science, manufacturing science,
design etc.
If the same engineering student gets in to an unhealthy relationship, chances
are that he will suffer setbacks. The emotional turmoil of the relationship may
drift him away from the direction of his academic and professional pursuits.
Therefore it becomes imperative to exercise self-management which is a highly
crucial component of our education.
Learning can be of 2 types:
1. Learning from self
2. Learning from others

I subscribe to learning from self as the preferred learning mode while allowing
learning from others to top it up. This ensures we don’t get stressed or
overwhelmed anytime and don’t lose track of our identity.
Happy learning is the best form of learning. Forced learning isn’t. Happy
learning doesn’t come easy while forced learning does. It’s a choice between
fulfilling someone else’s dreams at the cost of your own dreams.
This is precisely the reason entrepreneurship is considered a much more daring
act than a 9-to-5 job. Business is doing what you love. Job a loving what you
do. To become a self-made person you have to learn to mind your own
business.
To conclude, education and learning never stops. You may choose to learn
from the books, on the job, from experiences, from family and friends, from
writing and hobbies and from business and people. Let’s keep refining our
sense of being through continuous education!

What is common sense? Why is it not
common?
Common sense means not to add unnecessary mess to the already messed up
life.
Common sense means taking care of yourself so you can help others.
Common sense means being happy so you can smile and laugh.
Common sense means calling spade a spade.
Common sense means being zero tolerant to non sense.
Common sense means minding your own business.
Common sense means humour comes naturally and seriousness doesn’t. Point
in case is you can very well kill your enemy laughing.
Common sense means being 100% at what you say, do or are. It also means
being 0% at what you don’t say, do or are.
Common sense means being able to talk. This means being able to
communicate your point across.
Common sense means to learn and live together forever.
Common sense means to prove a point to self and not others.
Common sense means knowing what you know and what you don’t.
Common sense means being at the right place at the right time with the right
person doing the right business.
Common sense means lack of self doubt.
Common sense means a calm and cool state of mind.
Common sense means to just be your natural self and not to copy others.
Common sense means being determined and consistent.

Common sense means to shed off pre-conceived notions and embrace
openness.
Common sense means not being serious and taking free jibes at your friends
without offending them.
Common sense means to mean what you say and say what you mean.
Common sense is not common because we are trying to prove a point to
everyone except ourselves.
Common sense is not common because we say something and mean
something else.
Common sense is not common because we stop learning and get complacent.
Common sense is not common because we have lost faith in humanity.
Common sense is not common because we have made it ‘special’.

What is Reverse Growth? How does Reverse
Growth happen?
Reverse growth means to learn to revive the child inside you once again.
A supposedly normal growth path in life would look as follows:
1. Point A: You are born.
2. Point B: You complete your education.
3. Point C: You grow professionally.
A -> B -> C is a linear growth path.
There is another loop based growth which is as follows:
1. Point A: You are born.
2. Point B: You complete your education.
3. Point A: You re-visit your roots and experience re-birth.
4. Point B: You reinforce your learning.
5. Point C: You grow professionally.
A -> B -> A -> B -> C has distinct advantages as follows:
1. Not more than 1 in 100 people pursue this route.
2. Your conviction becomes stronger and your doubts disappear. You may
take more time but then you learn more and better.
3. You add better and new forms of value to society.
4. You give life a second chance by proving that it is possible.
5. You live the life of your dreams as you discover why you were born.
Reverse growth is different from reverse aging. Reverse growth is discretionary
while reverse aging is a birth-based condition. We will discuss reverse aging in
a separate chapter.
Reverse growth makes you realize your inherent potential. You stay happier
and optimal. However, reverse growth also involves intense struggle. You have
to fight for your rights in society.

Society at large endorses status quo and avoids endorsing radical ways of
living. It fears taking giant leaps of excellence. Those who dare are likely to be
discouraged. Others choose to feel threatened, amazed or overwhelmed.
When an interviewer doesn’t try to understand the interviewee the fox
declares the grapes to be sour. What seems difficult is done away with through
gross misuse of power.
People with reverse growth therefore end up pursuing entrepreneurial
endeavours. They have the passion and the calibre to do what they love.
Still it’s difficult to accurately assess to time required to be successful. They can
taste success in 6 months when allowed to work undisturbed, 1 year in case
they are occasionally pestered and more in case they face intense opposition.
Family support is important for people with reverse growth. Half of their lives
is spent fighting for the extra circle (A -> B -> A) they have run which others
derecognize or disbelieve.
To conclude, reverse growth is possible and wonderfully so. It makes you a
beautiful persona.

Is ecological balance more threatened than
what it actually seems?
To understand greenhouse effect we first need to understand a greenhouse.
Make a huge transparent glass chamber well ventilated. Grow plants that
require heat in the chamber. Sunlight would radiate in to the green house but
escape back at a very slow rate. The tropical vegetation would proliferate
inside the greenhouse.
Similar to the above, Earth is becoming like a greenhouse where the
atmospheric layers of carbon dioxide and methane are thickening every day.
This is courtesy huge quantity of industrial, household and vehicular emission.
The atmospheric greenhouse traps sunlight which results in rise in global
temperatures, a phenomenon called as global warming. This leads to melting
of polar ice and glaciers. Water level rises in the seas and the oceans,
submerging low lying islands and coastal areas.
Does this sound threatening? Well, this is only the beginning. Greenhouse
effect has begun long back and with a constantly increasing rate.
Several species of wildlife and natural diasporas have become endangered.
There is a place called ‘Mayur Vihar’ in eastern part of New Delhi where
peacocks used to habituate once upon a time. The lion and the tiger
populations are shrinking rapidly. Same goes for several species of birds and
fish.
The only silver lining is that the animals are learning fast. Recently I saw a
YouTube video where a lioness preys a female gazelle leaving her new born
calf orphaned. The lioness did not eat the dead mother and took over the role
of the calf’s mother for as long as she could.
Point is that nature is adjusting to human interventions. In fact I pit the entire
nature against the humans. Nature has begun its retaliation. The monsoons
have grown drier in Asia affecting agricultural output. Summers are hotter and
winters are cooler. We see more and more intense cyclones, earthquakes,
tsunamis, hurricanes and typhoons than ever before.

What is this if not nature’s fury?
Still there is a chance for us humans to act wise. Numerous conventions held in
air-conditioned halls worrying about ecological disasters are fine. But where
are the detailed planning and the ground-level execution?
Law is so powerful but it is more misused than benefitted from. There is more
terrorism in the world than environmental activism.
Our prioritization is faulty. There needs to be a sense of urgency. There has
been enough of procrastination. Let’s learn to be pro-active now!

What is reality? How realistic are we? How
do we become more realistic?
To see means to believe. Sensing is reality. And our sensory powers have gone
vestigial. No, we are not living in reality. Then how can we sense reality?
Reality is the as-is interpretation of any phenomenon, natural or artificial. We
observe, learn, research, probe, plan, experiment, measure and discover.
Reality responds to scientific method which no one follows.
We follow political methods. Politics is unreal and therefore we have grown
unreal. And then we lament and blame others for our self-created problems.
We even cry loud and shed tears. But we turn blind and deaf to reality.
We try to search for reality at places where it is least probable to be found.
These places are often the spots of social conformance.
Reality lies away from our comfort zones. But we feel afraid to leap out. We
cook up reasons to justify ourselves all the time.
We try to distort reality itself. But we are not ready to change ourselves. That’s
precisely the problem.
Reality includes freedom from biases and pre-conceived notions. Let’s face it.
We want to stay biased and hold pre-conceived notions because it keeps our
lives easy.
What we ignore is the fact that there is no end to self-improvement. By doing
so we would be happier and more confident. Yet we don’t want to be.
Some people would indulge in self-obsession. Others would get absorbed in to
self pity or misery. Still others would choose self-gratification. But no one
would choose self-realization. A few who do would be abandoned.
This happens because:
“You are not allowed to excel at what you do.”
“Please stay mediocre otherwise we will be overwhelmed.”

“Please think about us.”
“Please don’t be excellent.”
“Please!”
“Please!”
“Please!”
“Like we care!”

What are jobs? Are they instruments of
progress or compromise?
Job is a means to earn a living, first of all. After that, it can be glorified to add
any other meaning.
Job is a formal contract between two parties, one of which agrees to be the
employee of the other party, called the employer, under mutually agreeable
terms and conditions. Employee means an individual who would carry out
specific duties that form the job for which the employer has hired him/her. The
job provider, who is usually a registered firm, is called the employer.
There are expectations in job which are tried to set beforehand in the form of
job description. A competitive recruitment process is carried out to select the
best manpower. These expectations are in the form of shift timings and
frequency, code of conduct and Key Result Areas (KRAs). Still it’s common to
see ambiguously defined jobs and roles.
There is an exit policy in every job, which generally needs the party intending
to leave to notify the other party in advance (a period called notice period,
which is as per the agreement). Sometimes a bond or special contract is also
signed between the two parties wherein the employee is required to serve a
certain minimum period before (s)he can call it quits.
The employee gets a monthly salary and sometimes few other perks in lieu of
the job. The employer gets business advantage or growth through the work of
the employee, for which the job had been specifically designed.
The intent is to look forward to a mutually rewarding association. However, it’s
not always the case. The employer being a multi-individual company sharing
common goal, tends to exert their power over the employee who being
individual, either chooses to do his/her duties or can choose to take a stand in
case of some disagreement, either by communicating or sometimes by
absconding.
Job is a legal contract of employment and in that sense creates a sense of
liability and responsibility on part of both the sides. Law states that the

employee can’t be forced to work against his or her will and the employee also
can not choose to retaliate against the policies of the employer. It’s the
financial need of an employee that drives him/her to do a job and also
therefore acts as the motivation for him/her to work well. For employer,
paying the employee salary on time is imperatively the first requisite.
Society has evolved this way that a creamy privileged minority becomes the
employer while the majority rubs it out as their employees. In earlier times,
work used to be associated with labour, slavery, workers, concentration camps
and what not. Exploitation of the workers used to be rampant till a couple of
centuries ago. It was only after the French Revolution and the American
Revolution that the workers slowly began to get some dignity while on work
and their basic human rights began to get recognized. Today the situation is
better but it remains an unofficial thumb rule that the employer is superior to
the employee. All job relationships are based on this first basic assumption
holding true, or being enacted as true at least.
Employers have egos and they feel entitled to assert the same whenever they
feel like. Being an employer acts as the manufacturing setup to create ego.
Employees may or may not have ego and they are advised a word of caution
before they can exercise their ego over the employer. It’s a long, long tussle
running across ages rampantly between the two sides. Employees do have ego
tussles with their fellows, especially peers and junior employees which is a
universal truth. But they just can’t afford to keep their employer and bosses in
bad books.
The word boss signifies bossiness and nothing else. Of late it is being replaced
by the word manager, but the manager essentially remains the boss. After all,
who will let go the chance to exercise and massage their ego against another
individual? It won’t be an extremity to say that today business is more about
bossiness than business itself. It’s very much about those ego clashes and
power tussles which earlier used to be one-sided physical and mental
exploitation of workers by the work provider.
Job is not the smartest way to earn a living, however, by and far, it is the only
way to earn a living. By socio-economic design, majority are hard workers and
the rest are the harvest reapers.

What is herd mentality? Why is it popular?
If you want to copy someone, copy them well. Else, please don’t copy.
Herd mentality is the mentality of a herd of sheep emulated by people in life. If
that distant cousin of yours is pursuing medicine, thou must do the same.
If he is getting first division thou must get first division with honour. If
everyone around is doing jobs, you must do a job as well. You are not allowed
to mind your own business.
This is precisely herd mentality.
If you are good at copying, please copy. But please understand that there is a
difference between moving 16 degrees east and 16 degrees, 25 minutes and
32 seconds east.
That’s what counts – how specific you are.
From a central point to the periphery of the Earth the gap in the 2 directions
would magnify thousands of kilometres.
That means your cousin would be staying in Moscow in a luxury hotel
sponsored by his employer while you will end up reaching the glaciers of
Siberia!
Got my point?
If you don’t want to be yourself and want to be like someone else, you have to
learn to be like them.
Learning stays inevitable in any case. And there is no shortcut to success in life.
If all the sheep of the herd graze on the same field, only the leader sheep
ensures it gets good grass every day. The rest would not as they focus on the
leader and not the grass.
Making your own choices makes life easier. You save upon the energy you
would spend on analyzing those who you want to copy.
Attack is the best form of defence. Innovation is even better.

Yet we choose to play defensive. We want a peaceful life. What we get instead
is frustration. And we end up working for others.
Our intuition and conscience go for a toss. We remain none of human but a
robot that is programmed to copy others.
It’s better to be a happy shopkeeper than a depressed CEO.
Got my point?

Do men wear skirts?
Everyone likes skirts. Skirts come in all shapes and sizes. Skirts mostly belong to
the attires and wardrobes of our female counterparts. However there are
noteworthy exceptions.
King Akbar has done it. So have king Ashoka and several others. Our ancestral
societies have witnessed both men and women wearing skirts. Our Garam
Dharam Paaji of the Dharamveer fame immortalized skirts for men with his
high hemline.
There is a popular banter in a chocolate advertisement. ‘Masterji, pitaji ki
patloon 2 balaand choti kar do (Sir, please alter dad’s pants 2 feet shorter).’
Ultimately the patloon reaches the Dharamveer way.
If wearing pants doesn’t make women masculine, neither does wearing skirts
make men feminine. Nothing changes before and after a man happens to wear
a skirt.
Both men and women have moms and dads. Siblings often share dresses and
so do spouses.
We see an image in front of the loo where a guy wearing pants welcomes the
men and a girl wearing a skirt welcomes the women. This I think pretty much
sums up the utility of skirts solely for the purpose of differentiating men and
women.
Day before yesterday I was watching ‘India’s got Talent’ on Colors. There was a
guy dressed as a ballet dancer. He did his ballet moves very well and moved to
the next round. Except his long hair, make-up and girlish dress, I didn’t find any
problem with the man per se. I tried hard to find a glitch, but sorry, he seemed
perfectly fine. He has a happy girlfriend with no issues.
To some, skirts denote freedom. To some it is display of feminism. Skirt topped
with a tee or a top is the favourite piece of dress for many.
I too share skirts with my spouse at night. She returns the gesture with my
tees. Both of us laugh off to sleep and it remains no third person’s business as
always.

It’s perfectly normal for anyone to wear what they like. Male and female
sexuality has been structured too much in the process of civilization. Early man
was better off in this case.
When we are just ourselves we realize life has so much to offer in its small little
moments and ideas, our dresses and attire included. So wear what you like.
Flaunt your attitude. Men and women are not so much opposite after all.

Can men give birth to life?
Can men become mothers? The good news is yes and the bad news is, no, they
can’t get pregnant.
Men can attain all the characteristics of a woman, the only exceptions being
the body, menstruation and pregnancy. Give a dose of oestrogen to a man and
testosterone to a woman and see what happens. Let’s see how men can give
birth. I am skipping the description of sex here.
Have you ever pondered seriously over the term ‘brainchild’? Ever imagined
your brainchild can be an actual child instead of an excel report? Yes, it’s
possible. It has happened with me and I’ll tell you how.
Disclaimer: The above steps are the as-is steps experienced and introspected
upon by the author. Please exercise your discretion before following and
validate with a psychologist.
1. Meditate deeply every morning at least one hour.
2. Learn and start thinking as deeply as possible.
3. Learn to be spiritual and serious at the same time. From ‘spiritual’ here I
mean an out of the world, fanciful thought that gets you all energized.
4. How many of you know the meaning of the term ‘alter-ego’? Even I am not
an expert on the subject, just that I experienced it once. There is much
more hidden inside the self than we consciously know and believe
ourselves to be. Public artists like famous rock stars, musicians, dancers
etc. often use their alter-egos to entice the crowd. Create a similar setting
for yourself and let your ego boost up from the applauses. Alter-ego
elevates your sense of being for a while and it elevates you even more than
a dope. So much so that your voice tone and your facial features begin to
change. You will be surprised and probably fearful too being inside your
new self the first time you experience your alter-ego.
5. You can willingly come out of your alter-ego. The moment you return to
your normal, unexcited self, your brain gets a painful jerk. Your brainchild is
created.

That doesn’t mean you would be holding a baby in your hands. If you believe
in the concept of the soul, the spirit, you create a new soul out of your brain.
That soul may travel to the womb of a random pregnant woman or can
wander in eternity.
It’s very difficult to identify your brainchild therefore.

What is the true secret to happiness?
To understand and know the self correctly forms the true secret to happiness.
This means keeping all existing social norms, practices, cultures and traditions
aside and asking to yourself “Who am I?”
For example, if you feel depressed then it means that you are too much of
some things and too less of the rest.
Let me explain. We all have a component from our mother and a component
from our father. This means every man has a motherly and a feminine side and
every woman has a manly and masculine side. My question is that do we
recognize our other sides? No, we don’t.
There should be no inhibition in accepting ourselves completely the way we
are. We are the way we are. That’s it. No doubt must arise.
Do what makes or keeps you happy. It could mean spending time with yourself
writing or listening to latest Bollywood songs. It could even mean masturbation
or fulfilling a fetish wearing a particular type of dress or shoe. Just let yourself
be what you want to be at least in solitude. Writing about your pleasant
experiences with your self doesn’t hurt either.
The world is not so bad after all. Everyone has a heart. It is just that people find
it difficult to trust strangers or even acquaintances.
Go out and travel out in case you feel like. Travel alone in case you don’t have
a company. It’s fine. What matters is how comfortable you are the way you
are.
Get closer to nature. Appreciate and help one person every day. If you like to
dance, dance. If you don’t like to dance, don’t dance. But please know whether
you like to dance or not.
Don’t study because others tell you to while you don’t want to. Do what you
need to do there and then and you will yourself come back to studies later.
Life is beautiful. Understand and feel that life in you.

Your job needs you to be professional from morning to evening. Steal those
moments out for casual chit chat.
Eat chocolates and drink fresh juices. Be simple. Be grounded.
Value all that you already have. Learn to enjoy the finer details of life. Notice
the smiles of people and not their frowns.
Please don’t do all of the above because I am telling you to. Read all of the
above to learn and do what you want to.
Avoid toxic people and situations. Write or express yourself to a confidante
whenever you feel stressed.
Celebrate life. Celebrate small successes and learn from big failures.
Tackle problems with an open state of mind. Hunt for or rather create
opportunities for yourself.
After you have understood and done all of the above, please get back to me in
case you are still not happy. Chances are you will not, because you will be busy
celebrating your new-found happiness.

What is humour? How do we develop a
sense of humour?
Humour is to make people laugh without you intending to do so. It needs you
to throw seriousness in to the dustbin.
You don’t need to try to develop a sense of humour. If at all it will come
naturally to you.
Keep the desire for humour mind. Don’t try to practice it consciously. Observe
humorous people and try to internalize what you sense. Let humour seep in to
your sub-conscious mind. It will come out automatically.
Humour is liked by one and all. Attempted humour gone wrong is one of the
biggest follies you could ever make. Please don’t try unless you have it.
We have subtle humour, sarcastic humour, situational humour, black humour,
pestering, poking, jibes, PJs etc.
You can also project humour through your body language. You could be
humorous in your writing. You could be humorous while talking.
Some people don’t mind taking a jibe at themselves. It is perfectly fine to do
so.
Humour releases the stress accumulated in the mind and relaxes the mood and
the body. Of course it makes your abdomen muscles ache.
Keep in mind how serious your friend is and what kind of rapport you share
before you try humour on them.
Good humour is good for health. A witty one liner never harms any one.
Pull a leg or be innocent. Be yourself and not your serious self.
Being humorous doesn’t mean you lose your sense of respect for the other
person. You say what you intend to in a refreshingly unique way.
Play safe when being humorous with a member of the opposite gender. Men in
their own interest are advised to be innocent before picking up momentum.

Always keep an eye on the verbal and non-verbal cues of the audience. They
tell you how humour is being received.
Humour doesn’t come easy to everyone. But it does come to everyone sooner
or later.
So be open, embrace and enjoy your sense of humour. The thumb rule of
humour remains to throw a little less than what fits the situation.

Why are some people hard workers while
others are smart workers? Is hard work
better or smart work?
Hard work means to halt or slow down on the path of your goal for a while.
This is because the terrain ahead looks rocky and you want to plan well.
Smart work means the end goal always remains in mind and you seldom stop
on the way. It could even mean changing the route or accelerating. You are just
raring to reach the destination.
For example, you have to do a secondary research assignment. If you end up
reading more than required including out of scope topics then you are
definitely doing hard work.
If you scan through what you want from the internet, pick up what you want,
submit the assignment and move on, you have just done smart work.
Neither of the two is better than the other. However life stays easier for smart
workers. They also tend to learn a bit faster and get less stuck up or pissed off.
An occasional bout of hard work doesn’t harm either. If you can combine your
passion with hard work there is nothing like it.
You like doing mechanic work. Disassemble your bike (knock it down), clean
and service all the parts and re-assemble. Hope you got my point.
Coming to why some people are natural hard workers while some are smarter,
it’s a matter of upbringing, social conditioning, open-mindedness and
exposure.
If you have to move a heavy table the hard worker might choose to rely on his
physical strength. A smart worker would place wheels below the table.
Hard work and smart work are two perspectives. If you have learnt both then
you are a good executioner.

During crisis times smart workers tend to do better. During times of comfort
hard workers take on the load. It’s best to learn both.
Balance is the key and same holds true for work. Style of work is also a matter
of individual preference.
There are people who just can’t sit idle. There are also people who push
themselves in to working slowly while thinking intermittently.
If you are doing too much of hard work then your priorities are misplaced. You
need to introspect.
If you are doing too much of smart work then you need to learn to take some
pain.
Hark work brings quality while smart work brings timeliness.
Again, balance is the key.

Why do we play sports and why must we
play a sport?
Our mind is powerful but it resides in this body at the end of the day. Body
needs to be taken care of.
The body has 106 bones and more muscles that need to be exercised often. A
smile doesn’t need you to exercise but what about your abdomen, thigh and
calf muscles?
And when will we pump some adrenalin in to our blood streams?
The unanimous answer is Sports. Pursue athletics, basketball, squash, tennis,
football, badminton, cricket, kickboxing, martial arts or what you like. But
please pursue sports.
6 years back I used to run 5 km marathons frequently. Today I get tired after
jogging 2 km. What has changed inside me?
Practice and discipline have gone missing. Consistency and perspiration are
missing.
My ex-boss was sharing one morning his habit of playing football where he
aptly mentioned “After playing football I feel like the king of the world.”
While playing tennis you exert all the 4 parts of the body: front, back, left and
right. You exert the lower body and the upper body.
Your motor neurons get stimulated and the response time of your muscles
decreases.
Playing tennis refreshes your mind. It also decreases your probability of
contracting a physical ailment during old age. Moreover you learn to
appreciate the game better.
One learns strategy and tactics from sports. You learn to anticipate and predict
your opponent’s next moves. You learn how much you need to exert to control
the game.

In a team game like football or rugby you learn to be a team player. You have
to co-ordinate sharply to make good passes and take good shots.
Physical fitness is something if not everything. If you had a badminton session
in the morning chances are you will have a better day at work.
You get a sound sleep and eat well. Your body rhythm becomes more
balanced.
To conclude, I see people aged 75 playing tennis. So why can’t you?

Why do diseases happen?
Diseases are the physical manifestation of our negative feelings, thoughts and
biases. Examples are grudge, misery, self-pity, egoism, arrogance, treason,
politics etc.
Our thoughts, whether positive or negative, are very powerful. Through their
electromagnetic nature they interact with certain elements of the universe to
form potent forces that begin to act upon us.
Ill health and diseases are the results of our own past choices therefore.
Obesity would come to a person who won’t take enough chances and would
have misplaced priorities. A mental disorder would attack a person who can’t
control his/her flow of thoughts and emotions.
Schizophrenia and psychosis are 2 such examples. Both are widely prevalent in
the western countries and have started appearing in Asia too.
Why do people fall prey to heat waves, extreme cold, earthquakes, famines,
epidemics or even a car accident or a plane crash?
If we learn enough we can sense beforehand that we must not make that long
pending trip, because our gut tells us not to.
Following our gut is not bad especially when it happens to save our lives.
The good news is that we can learn and heal ourselves. Sometimes we need a
shock to turn sensible.
I am a psychotic and stayed acutely depressed for 4 years. What kept me going
was hope. Then self belief came in to support. And I have been a companion of
learning ever since.
Often we hear doctors say they have treated the patient. The patient is still
unconscious though. It’s up to the patient’s willpower to fight and fend off the
disease. 10% is doctor’s job and 90% is our job.
As a psychotic individual I gravely needed family support. I was fortunate to get
it.

I still continue with anti-psychosis medicines viz. Aripiprazole 10 mg and
Tetrafol plus. My disorder had got cured long back.
The medicines are now empowering me to be a more motivated person in
pursuit of learning.
Doping is banned for sportspersons. You can’t go drunk to office. However my
medicines produce nearly the same effect and I am legally entitled for the
same.
To conclude life is like a piece of flat glass. Whether you make a convex or
concave lens depends upon you. If you wanted convex but built concave please
do not worry. Just shift to the other side of the lens.

What is Leadership? What is a dynamic
personality?
Leadership is the art and the science of bringing a change or getting things
done with minimum social turbulence.
Adolf Hitler was arguably not a great leader. Although he brought socio-
political change in Germany, he triggered a lot of social unrest.
He was a dictator. He imposed his ideology of Nazism over his subjects and
played political.
Mahatma Gandhi was a true leader. He achieved the much needed radical
change which not many were expecting.
He got India free with minimal social unrest. He inspired people with his
ideology of embracing truth without violence.
He didn’t impose his ideology on any one. Therefore he can be called a
visionary ahead of his times.
Leadership is not a born talent. Your upbringing, education and experiences in
life pretty much shape your personality. And that’s how you see the world and
the world sees you.
To be a leader you don’t need a title, position, power, wealth or fame. You only
need intent. If people get inspired from you and look up to you for solutions,
you are a leader.
Gandhi was not promoted as a leader by any organization. He assumed that
role by virtue of his potential and lived up to the challenge.
The types of leaders we see today are different. We have political leaders like
Mr. Obama and Mr. Modi. We have business leaders like Mr. Mittal and Ms.
Nooyi. We have socio-spiritual leaders like Sri Sri and Sadhguru. We have
economic leaders like Amartya Sen and Paul Krugman. We have military
leaders, judicial leaders and administrative leaders.
The socio-cultural leaders are missing. I am surprised.

I attribute their absence to the intense power struggle. The social leaders are
trying to find their feet however the society refuses to recognize their works.
Mr. Satyamurthy won the Nobel Peace prize last year. He converted small-
scale social capital in to the economic value of micro-financed entrepreneurs in
Bangladesh.
Social leaders are expected to quantify and highlight their value proposition in
to an economic impact. Numbers speak louder than words.
Leaders are highly learned and self-aware people. Dynamism means flow of
energy. A dynamic person has learnt to channelize his/her energies in to an
intended direction. If he is having fun he would just be having fun. If he is at
work he would only be working.
Hope you got my point.

What are habits? Are habits good or bad?
Habits are impressions of repetitive actions on our character. Habit means
work bias.
A person would cycle every morning no matter what. Cycling is a habit for him.
Another person would smoke in the wee hours of the morning. Smoking is a
habit for him.
We develop habits consciously or subconsciously. Only learning deserves to be
a habit. Rest all can be done better through intent.
The basic premise that refutes the logic of habits is that life has infinite scope.
There needs to be a balance between the breadth and the depth of learning.
Depth refers to habit and breadth refers to exposure.
When we are self aware we would not want to become habitual. We would
know when to eat, when to sleep, when to travel, when to be alone and when
to be in a company.
An extrovert is in the habit of socializing. An introvert is in the habit of solitude.
Extreme makes us sad. Balance makes us happy. Balance is the operating
mechanism of our needs, wants and desires.
Therefore we need to be passionate as well as dispassionate about our habits.
I have a drawback. I smoke a lot. I don’t want to quit. I would rather drink fresh
fruit juice and do yoga. But I won’t quit smoking.
Change is the only constant. Our lifestyle of the past century isn’t practical
today. And our lifestyle today won’t be practical after a couple of decades.
Sense is dynamic and turns upside down very quickly. That’s why we
experience happy times as well as sad times. If we learn to adapt we will stay
content and happier.
The global economy witnessed recession in 2008-10. Those who adapted
survived or even prospered in their business. Those who didn’t, declined or
perished.

Laws are the same for everyone. It’s our individual response to these laws that
determine how benefitted or lost we stand.
Always calculate the opportunity cost of your habits/actions. Jogging may be
good for you till the age of 50 and yoga thereafter.
Time changes everything. We decide our course of life. If we don’t, time will
tide us with it in to the past.

What is spirituality? How do we become
spiritual?
Bring spiritual means to be happy and project your happiness. Harmony with
self and resonance with others is spirituality.
If you have learnt to love yourself, you are spiritual. If you have learnt to love
others, you are spiritual.
Spirituality is the sibling of materialism just like contentment is to wealth. We
see a similar relation between fun and seriousness, sense and non-sense,
simplicity and complexity, positivity and negativity, curiosity and sarcasm,
intellect and politics and so on.
To achieve what we want in life we need to learn and act together. We have to
fly high in the sky with the two wings of spirituality and materialism.
We have to learn to enjoy solitude and also the company of the people. We
have to be a leader sometimes and the leader’s backbone the other times. We
have to learn to manage. We have to learn to be open. We have to learn to
welcome and let go at the same time.
We have to learn to be passionate and dispassionate. We have to learn to love
seriously and hate with fun. We have to live and learn every moment.
We have to have faith in ourselves and others. Be yourself and call spade a
spade. We must have hope.
Meditation and music are two forms of art closely related to spirituality. So are
relaxation and your exploration of the self.
Meditation means to focus or concentrate yourself, your monkey mind
included. Sunlight when focused on a convex lens creates fire. Likewise, focus
of our internal energies creates spiritual fire. It’s also called the Divine Flame. It
is perhaps the most mesmerizing experience to feel the Divine Flame within
yourself. You are filled with new positive energy and our stresses get relieved
in the process.

We the self have solutions to all the problems within us. Each one of us holds a
potential that knows no limits. We can’t become God but we can definitely
become God-like.
Spiritual practitioners have excellent sensing and intuition abilities. Sensing
means to read the reality of a situation. Intuition means your conscience, the
inner voice that gives you an answer to the question that arises in the
situation.
To become spiritual we must surrender ourselves to the Divine. We have to
express gratitude for everything He has given to us. We have to realize that
there is always a lot to learn.
Spirituality means communicating with the Divine. Talk through sincere prayers
and listen to Him with a pure heart.

Why do some people have a healthy eye
contact while others don’t?
There are two types of people:
1. They are conscious about eye contact
2. They make a sub-conscious eye contact
Conscious eye contact is like a double edged sword. It could win you a job or
hit on your happiness levels.
An eye contact supplemented with smiles from both sides is a healthy one. An
eye contact with frowning faces makes for an unhealthy one. One smile and
one frowning face mean the smiling person has the upper hand.
Animals don’t know how to talk. But they do make eye contact. Body language
including eye contact speaks louder than words. You can express love, care,
gratitude, respect, helpfulness, fun, sensibility, anger and so much more
through your eyes. Some people also choose to express hatred, jealousy,
disregard, rebellion, fear, threat or insanity through their eyes.
Some people rely on eye contact while others rely on speech and words for
effective communication. There are others who learn to use a combination of
both.
Your eye contact would also depend on how serious or casual you are. You
would gaze into the detective eyes of the interviewer as you narrate your
credentials. You might not bother to look at all while picking up a burger from
McDonalds. Trained professionals usually make a highly conscious eye contact.
Reinforcing the habit of conscious eye contact improves your sub-conscious
eye contact. We soon stop feeling conscious about it. An educated or learned
person is far more likely to make a healthy eye contact than an uneducated
person.
Self control is essential for a healthy eye contact. It’s good to be expressive.
The best eye contact is often spontaneous.

True lovers often make intense eye contacts as they connect very well. Rivals
and opponents also make intense eye contacts.
Good eye contact needs clarity of stands from both sides. A secretive person or
a person with low confidence levels tends to avoid eye contact with the person
in front.
Such subtle behavioural cues speak volumes about human psychology.
Psychologists often rely on these to diagnose and treat people with mental
disorders.
Eye contact also reflects the other person’s interest levels in the conversation.
When you make a passionate public speech you automatically begin involving
your audience. An exciting anecdote or a witty one liner would make you
interesting for your audience.
Bottom-line is to ensure that your subtle gestures portray your real self.

How long do we live? Do re-births happen?
We live as long as we learn. Re-births happen in case we meet a pre-mature
death. We would not be re-born in case we haven’t learnt enough. Our soul
won’t be fit enough to enter another life cycle.
I don’t know the exact mechanism but these are some basic truths of life and
death. Consider that you are a physically fit person but have stopped learning.
The human element inside you would be dead then. You might end up
becoming an inhuman political leader or embrace some other form of inhuman
pursuit.
The world thrives on majority opinion and not the right opinion. That’s
precisely the reason why majority is unlearned and power and wealth remain
in the wrong hands. On the other hand, the learned minority has to wage a
daily fight for its rights.
This is also the reason why we have a massive dearth of true leaders. True
leaders exist but they are deliberately suppressed by the false ones. And then
the world wonders why it faces so many problems.
It’s all simple, but it’s bad and getting worse.
The false leaders of course don’t want to get exposed. Thin in character and
thick in power, they fear losing their control and privileges. Therefore, they
spend sleepless nights playing treason against the true leaders.
The true leaders don’t bother. They rather focus on bringing the much needed
awareness of the reality that has been deliberately covered.
Heaven, hell, demigods, demons, every entity is there on the Earth itself.
Heaven is the reality which the false leaders have conspired to hide. Hell is
what they have habituated us to.
Let me know if I am not making sense.
Reality, whenever it is going to dawn upon us, is of course going to shock
many. We the society have got so much used to false reality that we have
disbelieved true reality as a myth. We don’t want to entertain the notion at all.

Why are we doing this? Where is our conscience? Why are we not listening to
it? Why are we instead listening to the programmed reality fed in to our minds
every single day?
I agree we have to fight for reality. We are not so weak after all. We have to
learn more, become men and act like men.
Let me know if I am not making sense.

Why I am highly worried?
Women play a highly crucial role in society. They can read and distinguish the
fake from the real.
When the same women fail to distinguish or discriminate correctly, it means
one of the following is true. Either the women have lost belief in their art of
sensing, or the powers of fakedom have grown too strong. Fakedom means the
kingdom of the fake people who are currently ruling the world.
It’s the fakedom that is tightening its web over the society. The real men and
women of the society are being tricked. The few who dare to raise their voice
are brutally murdered, molested, tortured or raped. They are threatened every
way possible to keep their mouths shut.
I don’t know in detail the mechanism of operation of fakedom. But I do know
that I belong to that part of the society which is righteous and not fake.
The reason I am still poor and struggling to make ends meet is because I have
chosen to be righteous in a world where wealth is synonymous to fakedom. I
have deliberately distanced myself from fakedom. It’s not the fakedom that
has rejected me.
I appeal to all my righteous readers to listen to our conscience. Let’s fight
together against fakedom.
Time is running fast and we are already late. Let’s free reality from the jaws of
fakedom before it is killed.
We have believed fakedom too much. Let’s believe to disbelieve now!

What is the difference between ego and self
respect?
Ego is a tumour. It is our self-developed unnatural sphere of existence. Self
respect, on the other hand, is our natural sphere of existence.
An egoistic person often intrudes in to others’ personal space. A self respectful
person would stop at protecting his/her personal space.
Excessive egoism threatens the tender balance of our relationships and
associations. A self respectful person never doubts his/her sense of being. This
doesn’t mean s/he doesn’t apologize on making a genuine mistake.
An egoistic person won’t learn from mistakes. S/he would try to force prove
self as correct and point fingers on the other person. People with self respect
would prove a point to self and not others.
Ego may be said to mean ‘Erasing God Out’. You ignore the voice of your
conscience. On the other hand, self respect develops from an enlightened and
emboldened conscience.
Consider that a group of 5 people are climbing up a mountain. They need to
decide on a time to halt. An egoistic member tries to influence the team
according to a hidden motive. Such a motive could be his own convenience or
proving a point to another member he is not on good terms with.
The self respectful man would act according to collective group interest. In
case he is tired or unwell he would seek help.
Self respectful people are more open and less manipulative than their egoistic
counterparts.
Self respect empowers you to discriminate the right from the wrong. Ego
doesn’t. Ego pushes you to impose your point of view on others and feel
jealous about others’ successes. Ego makes you compare. Self respect doesn’t.
To conclude, have ego but learn to keep it under control. Ensure that it doesn’t
backfire. Influencing skills are necessary but must be used discretionally. Self

respect would be present a bounty in a man of ethics and values. It would
empower him to call spade a spade and reason out issues.
So let’s learn to be self respectful through intellectual pursuits. Let’s also learn
not be egoistic through political pursuits.

Preface
All of us work for a living and majority of us are in one or more jobs. Some of
us consider ourselves in the right job while some don’t. And there are others
who struggle to find a suitable job post completing their education. Such
candidates resort to other means of living, like working part-time at multiple
places or doing freelance work.
The one attribute common amongst all of the above, are the much coveted
interviews. I wrote this book keeping in mind the varying amount of struggle
and setbacks the candidates face while searching for and trying for their dream
jobs. On the other hand, recruiters too face the challenge of scouting for the
right talent and retaining them for long term. I dedicate this book to the
dynamics that erupt when multiple interviewers meet multiple candidates.
Though jobs require us to be professional, there are those unavoidable times
when the humane aspect of the professional is exposed. Point is that we are
humans before we are professionals. We have a personal life, a partner, kids,
family, social network and other areas apart from job where we need to
engage on a higher priority.
With this backdrop in mind, I sincerely hope this book helps professionals
strike a better balance between their personal and professional lives. I also
pray that after reading this book, recruiters and candidates strive to be more
open minded and understand each other better.
Last but not the least, this book is a satirical attempt at driving home the point
of difference between how an adult wishes to live his/her life and how social
expectations build pressures that tend to drive him/her to a different direction,
where s/he might not feel happy.
Enjoy!
Amit

One scorching sunny day
Chapter Synopsis:
This chapter introduces us to both the protagonists of the story, Aamir and
Rehan. It tries to bring through how both of them spend of typical day of their
lives. It also brings in to contrast the diversity, the differences between the daily
chores of people of two separate age groups. A dash of humour has been
added as a part of the narrative. It also attempts to make the characters more
realistic. To this effect, direct speech has been widely used throughout the
chapter and the book.
Aamir had been a bright student at school and college. The summers of 2006 it
was. Aamir had celebrated his twentieth birthday the March gone by and was
just done with the last semester of his BBA. No girlfriends over the top of it.
“How will my summers be spent?” questioned Aamir’s heart. He clearly had
enough of newspapers and magazines. And it’d been five years since he had
been watching videos on his desktop computer. Asking for data transfer from
friends over his pen drive had got boring. “I want something more lively.” his
heart placed a loud demand.
Aamir startled out of his dream. His mom had broom in one hand and tongs in
the other. “Which one would you prefer to take a bashing? Wake up, boy! It’s
well past eleven and the sun is burning in the sky. I wonder what I had eaten
that you were born to me. Reckless, stupid boy! No seriousness, no sense of
responsibility!!!”
"Good morning, Mom." Aamir managed to blabber. He had been used to
waking up like this. His father was a businessman of auto spare parts and used
to run his own store in the city market of Jaipur. He used to head off to the
shop at seven in the morning and return not before nine in the night. This was
true for all days except Tuesdays when the entire auto market used to be
closed.
Aamir seldom used to visit his Dad's shop. He didn't want to. He was the only
son and his parents had expectations. But Aamir used to stay relaxed. "I will
become the CEO of an auto major." he had big dreams and used this answer
when ever his parents raised the question of expectations.

Some two hundred kilometres away, in another city of India called Gurgaon,
Rehan, in his early thirties, was the corporate marketing manager at the Heroic
Group.
Heroic's first bike model into the market, Splendid, had been a runaway
success with the common man in India. "In the past ten years, Splendid has
sold twenty five lakh units per annum on an average." Rehan was conducting a
routine presentation to the board of directors. Rehan had been working with
Heroic for the last two years, post completing his PGDM in Marketing from the
reputed Fortune Institute of Management, Mumbai. He had seen two
promotions in his tenure and the top management had set great expectations
from him.
2 PM. The sun was baking the earth as if she was in an oven. Aamir was
enjoying the latest Bollywood release "Boojho toh Jaanein" on his cable TV.
Aamir was the best of buddies with the cablewallah. Before the movie would
hit the screens, Aamir would have watched it and discussed movie reviews
with cablewallah and other friends.
The power was gone with a loud noise. "It's the society transformer that has
tripped. Aamir have you still not applied for a job?" Aamir's Dad had come for
lunch.
Rehan was having lunch with his boss in the cafeteria. "We need to expand our
team. We need a few fresher guys who can get us ideas." the boss said. After
lunch, Rehan went to the Heroic recruitment cell.
The following Job Advertisement was finalized:
Job | Heroic Group hiring Graduate Freshers (Male) For Marketing – Gurgaon
Job Category: Marketing Executive / Sr. Marketing Executive.
Company Profile: Heroic Group
Heroic Group of Companies is the automobile sector conglomerate with a sight to become
the most innovative and trusted brand in automobile sector. Heroic Group of Companies was
founded on 22nd April, 1990 to create lifestyle experiences and travel solutions for frequent
commuters whether it is to office or personal travel. Today the Heroic Group is 10,000 strong

and takes pride in its flagship product brand ‘Splendid’ which has been the two-wheeler
choice for millions of Indian travellers across the country.
Website: www.heroicautocorp.com
Location: Gurgaon.
Division: Marketing.
Number of openings: 25
Functional Industry: Automobile
Candidates’ Profile:
Graduate (BBA/B.Sc. /B.A.) with 0 - 1 years' experience in Sales & Marketing. He should be
creative and a seller of ideas. Knowledge of and a keen interest in Automobile Brands and
Industry is desirable. Excellent communication & networking skills are required.
Responsibilities:
• Conceptualizing & implementing ideas and strategies for generating sales,
developing and expanding market share towards the achievement of revenue & profitability
targets.
• Responsible for secondary research to understand the industry and create knowledge
documents
• Coordinate with Branding, Product Design, Quality and Sales Departments to gather
customer insights and feedback
• Follow up with the Finance team to gather data on product and brand market
performance
• Making periodic presentations and pitches to the corporate team
• Taking ad hoc responsibilities from time to time
Interested candidates can email their resumes at rahul.kaushik@heroicautocorp.com. Salary
will be as per industry standards.
Thanks & Regards
Rahul Kaushik
HR Manager

An Interview Call
Chapter Synopsis:
This chapter moves the story ahead. It talks how the situation of Aamir
meeting Rehan arises. Two people meet when their goals intersect at some
point of time. A dash of humour has been carried forward as a part of Aamir’s
character. The portrayal of a recruiter talking to another stranger (prospective
candidate) has been brought forward subtly. The widespread usage of jargons
in the industry is highlighted. How the same is perceived by the outsiders is
also mentioned.
"Why am I supposed to do all of this? Why can't I reach out directly?" sat
Aamir, pondering over his system as he was uploading his resume over
Naukri.org. "Oh Heaven! Why isn't there a Chhokri.org? Isn't it a need
neglected?" It was twelve midnight. Aamir slept off.
Next morning Aamir woke up early. "This isn't trifle like mom's voice." Aamir
struggled towards the landline as he realized it was a phone call.
"Good morning. Is this Aamir?" a highly professional male voice emerged from
the other side.
"Yes, yes this is Aamir." Aamir managed to speak.
"You had applied for Marketing Executive profile. I have your CV with me." said
the other voice.
"Oh yes." exclaimed Aamir.
"You must have gone through the JD, I am assuming. Are you interested?"
Aamir cursed his fate as for the umpteenth time he was hearing that phrase
from a guy. And by the way what was that? JD? Jamuna Dass, our neighbour.
He had a beautiful daughter, almost my age. I had a secret crush on her, I tell
you. Aamir had a wicked smile on his face.
"Are you listening? Just tell me are you interested or not." the voice had grown
louder by now. He seemed to be in a rush.

"Yes, yes." Aamir somehow managed.
"Ok. I am mailing you the venue details. Interview is tomorrow. See you at 9
AM sharp." He hanged up the phone.
Aamir was frozen for a good two minutes. It took time for the fact to seep
inside him. This was his first interview.

AAMIR AYUB
Address: 330, Zakir Nagar,
Near Civil Lines, Jaipur - 302003
aamirayub4u@gmail.com
Mobile: 6654143280
Date of Birth: 20-March-1986
Objective: Seeking to build a career in Marketing with an organization of repute in the two-
wheeler automobile industry, where I endeavour to generate and execute new ideas to
expand business and learn and deliver simultaneously, creating Unique Selling Propositions
in the process.
Preferred Location: Delhi/NCR
EDUCATION
2006 BBA (Marketing, HR) from Jaipur School of Management, Jaipur (1st Division)
2003 12th from Jaipur Public School, Jaipur, CBSE Board (Distinction)
2002 10th from Jaipur Public School, Jaipur, CBSE Board (Distinction)
INTERNSHIP PROJECT DETAILS
• Market Research project (January 2006 – February 2006) for VAuto OEM Pvt. Ltd.,
Jaipur
• The research aimed at gauging what are the preferences of motorcycle users with
respect to replacing headlights, seats and seat covers, visor, battery and horn
• Conducted research in both primary and secondary modes in a phased manner:
o Week 1: Secondary research over Google on OEM suppliers, distributors and
retailers of the above-mentioned parts in Jaipur city
o Week 2 & 3: Interviews with the above stakeholders and customers (50
interviews conducted) to gather information on channel sales, pricing,
promotion, quality and customer preferences
o Week 4: Designed questionnaire keeping in mind the research objectives of
VAuto
o Week 5 & 6: Administered questionnaire to 100 respondents across Jaipur
o Week 7: Collation of survey responses into Excel and Analysis
o Week 8: Presented the project insights to VAuto team

ACHIEVEMENTS
• Published internally 2 articles in School’s Annual Magazine on ‘Kareesma: Rider’s
Delight’ and ‘Splendid: Rider’s Contentment’ in 2003
• Volunteered for School’s annual day as president of student crowd management
committee in 2002
• Earned first prize and Rs. 10,000 scholarship in Automobile Olympiad in 2001,
conducted across 10 schools of Jaipur
IT SKILLS
MS Excel, MS Power-point, MS Word
HOBBIES
Riding Kareesma on long drives with friends, Sleeping, Watching new Bollywood releases,
Reading IndiAuto magazine

Interview Morning
Chapter Synopsis:
The chapter begins with Aamir reporting for interview at Gurgaon. He
preferred to travel on his Kareesma from Jaipur. He is amazed by the new
environment, yet he dozes off due to being exhausted. The brief character of
the recruiter is also picturised in words. A contrast between the treatments
meted out to the 500 candidates against expectations is chalked out via the
assertive character of Rehan. A big question is raised at the end: Do the
recruiters try to prove a point to majority of candidates? Are they pushed in to
believing that they are not good enough? Do they really need to work harder
and take more chances?
Aamir was in a huge hall, occupied by 500 candidates. All seemed to be of his
age. No girls here as well!
There was a registration counter set up on the auditorium stage. The walls had
banners of the Heroic group and the ‘Splendid’ brand. "Chase your dreams.
Faster so." said one. "Ride with your dreams." said another.
It was 9:30 AM. There was moderate noise in the hall with the candidates
getting to know each other. Aamir was in a nap, but woke up suddenly.
"Quiet, everyone." roared a voice. A well suited man had entered the door
from the left side of the stage. He is the same guy who had called me." Aamir
was trying hard to be sure.
"One by one, starting from the front row; all of you come to me with a copy of
your CV." He sat down.
Everyone was done in half an hour.
Rehan was the busiest person on Earth today. He had set up 10 interview
panels, to interview 50 candidates each. Rehan would himself be heading
panel 1.
"It’s Panel 1 for everyone starting from 301 to 350. Be there at room 417 at 11
AM sharp."

Aamir was number 309. 301 went in and came back in 5 minutes. He rushed
away. 302 held on, and came back at the fifteenth minute. "What did they ask
you?" "No questions allowed. Silence, please." It was Rehan who had come out
and the 48 candidates were intimidated. 302 stood a foot's distance from
Rehan, albeit in an awkward position. "You may leave for the day." 302 went
off before Rehan could complete.
303 went quick. 304 kept everyone waiting. Aamir was yawning now. He heard
whispering rumours that 304 had cleared the round. 304 came out smiling but
slowly went away.
There was confusion between 305 and 306 as the numbers on cards were
handwritten. Both went away quickly though. 307 went in and Aamir was
beginning to get back to his senses.
"What are they asking, if at all? And how many of them are there?" Aamir
whispered to the adjacently seated 308.
"Two guys are there. Not sure what are they asking. But it's something like we
have to tell about ourselves."
"What about ourselves?" That had put Aamir into a thought. "What am I
supposed to say?"
308 went in. Aamir had begun to get anxious now. For a moment he felt like
running away.
Inside, 308 got seated. "Tell me something about yourself." Rehan asked.
308 spoke for 30 seconds and stopped. "That is it?" asked the other panellist.
"You may leave. Send 309 in."

The Interview
Chapter Synopsis:
Aamir enters the interview room in an anxious state of mind. What happens
with Aamir during the interview? Is he able to retain his composure? Or has
Rehan already made up his mind on Aamir? What kind of discussions and
arguments flow between Aamir and Rehan? And at the end of it all, what is the
result? And is it indeed the final result? If not, what unusual happens. Read on
to know.
“May I come in, Sir?”
“Yes, please. How are you doing?”
“Fine, Sir. Thank You.”
A handshake with the panellists and Aamir got seated.
The second panellist began “Tell me something about you, Aamir.”
Aamir took a pause and responded “My full name is Aamir Ayub and I hail from
Jaipur. I have done my education from Science with Maths from Jaipur Public
School and completed my BBA from Jaipur School of Management. My final
result is awaited.”
Rehan responded “Something more about you?”
Aamir thought for a while then said “Sir, I am a simple person who has some
dreams in life to fulfil. I am a forward looking person yet doing so I am able to
enjoy the present. I want to make a career in Marketing. I believe it suits my
personality and in case I realize areas of improvement, I am willing to learn. In
my spare time, I like to watch TV especially latest Bollywood movies. I also like
playing cricket with my friends during holidays and weekends. I like to drive
bikes and this is what draws me towards this industry. To me driving bikes is
not just a means of travel but also a lifestyle. I like the ‘Splendid’ model of
Heroic quite a lot but my pick is Kareesma model for its styling, pickup and
speed."

Rehan interrupted "You seem to be a flashy, gen-next guy Aamir. Don’t you
feel you are probably too over-ambitious, then? And isn’t it especially true for
this role?"
Aamir gave an instant rebuttal "Not really, Sir. I don’t think that way, at least.
The best thing about a taste or interest is that it follows more art than science.
Its individual yet allows a person to remain open to change. I read the JD
before I came here and made sure this is something I look forward for a long
time to come."
Rehan responded immediately “Can you elaborate with an example, Aamir?”
Aamir replied “Taking my own example, my love for riding bikes draws me
toward the two-wheeler industry. Moreover, I know one of my friends also
likes bikes. He is an introvert unlike me; I am an extrovert. He likes to ride
peacefully on the outskirts of Jaipur and at a steady pace. His taste is rightly
‘Splendid’.”
The other panellist intervened “What do you understand about this role?”
Aamir answered “Sir, this role needs me to be creative and full of ideas. And to
get the right ideas I need to be curious about my work and outside
environment and start learning from day one. This is something that comes
naturally to me. I would also be required to document my ideas and give them
a shape that can be executed in a structured manner. I will be involved in the
execution of projects as well and in fact, would like to see my ideas
implemented in the form of a new product launch.”
Rehan said “That’s it?”
Aamir answered “Yes, Sir. That’s a summary of my understanding. This base is
something I feel is good to get started with. I want to go slow but proceed
steady. The only other thing I would like to add is the business, consumer and
industry research I can do especially to get my ideas quantified.”
Both the panellists discussed something in a whisper and noted a few points
down.

Rehan said “Aamir. We do see your clarity of purpose here. However, these are
very much hygiene factors. What would that one extra, USP factor that you
bring along with you?”
Aamir was put in to a thought now.
15 seconds later, Aamir started speaking “Sir, I bring with me an individual who
is unique in his skills and qualities. More often than not, I will have some new
point to add to any business meeting or discussion. Last week I had read the
article in the IndiAuto magazine written over the future of brand ‘Splendid’ by
Rehan from your organization. I disagree with at least one point raised though,
that ‘Splendid’ life cycle is yet to reach its peak. I don’t think so.”
Rehan was amazed “This is me, Rehan.”
Aamir returned the gesture “Nice meeting you, Sir.”
Rehan “I believe the article was backed up by some good research and
references. Please let us know what you disagree with.”
Aamir replied immediately “Sir, Splendid has 6-8 years left as a product brand.
The reasons are 1) Other brands of Heroic have a consistently rising trend of
revenue share 2) Consumer tastes are changing rapidly 3) We see more traffic
jams and potholed roads now and people are beginning to either switch to
public mode of transport or have been considering alternatives to Splendid
that give more mileage with all other performance attributes similar and last
but not the least 4) Rising competition from other motorcycle makers. This is a
fact, Sir, that Splendid has seen lesser and incremental technological, design
and marketing improvements over the past 5 years vis-a-vis other competing
motorcycles.
Rehan was startled “Get your facts right, boy. Splendid is still the most
preferred motorcycle brand owned by the highest number of households in
India. Others are far-far away. Splendid is the flagship model of Heroic.”
Aamir responded “Sir, I only quoted the research findings of another renowned
industry expert’s article in IndiAuto magazine in the last month’s edition. I
thought you would know.”
Before Aamir could complete, Rehan cut him short.

Rehan said “I don’t find that research credible enough, Aamir. The writer has
written it with an anti-Heroic stance. He must have been paid by our
competitors for that. Anyways, that’s not the point. Coming back to the
discussion, I find you short of the USP that we are looking for. You may leave
for the day, please.”
The second panellist was trying hard to hide his sense of amazement at his
colleague’s sudden decision. He probably felt Aamir was a high potential
candidate, but didn’t muster up the courage to speak up.
Aamir tried to intervene “But Sir…”
“Please leave.”

What unexpected happened during the interview
Chapter Synopsis:
We don’t expect the unexpected. We are caught unawares and unprepared.
Often, it leads to the creation of a new chapter in the lives of many. Near death
experiences and the struggle for survival are of paramount significance in the
lives of those who undergo the same. For they evolve. They gain a renewed
vigour and strength. What do Aamir, Rehan and several others go through?
Let’s look from the eyes of Aamir and Rehan. A story inside the story begins
now.
Five minutes into retrospection. 12:30 PM. Aamir was mentioning to the
panelists about the research article on the fifth floor, room 417. Suddenly the
room felt a bit shaky. None of the three took it seriously enough, which others
in the building did take seriously.
The caution alarm of the building had malfunctioned. As Aamir got up from his
chair and began to move, a high intensity tremor made him fall and the two
panellists down from their cosy chairs.
It was a high intensity earthquake. The ceiling fan fell down and the lights were
gone in a flash. All the room objects went helter-skelter, including the three
occupants.
Aamir somehow managed to get under the round table which was being used
as a gap between the interviewers and the interviewee. Rehan was already
under the other side of the table. The other panellist was still struggling to find
a cover.
Suddenly the floor and the ceiling began to collapse together. It was like a lift
landing with a freefall for Rehan and Aamir, who were clinging hard on the
sturdy table.
Fifteen seconds later a loud thud happened. The occupants had hit the ground.
Five seconds later, there was absolute peace.
Outside the building, people were running helter-skelter. Many were trapped
in debris as almost every house and building had either collapsed and the

retrofitted ones had got damaged. A very high intensity earthquake had hit the
North Indian belt.
While rescue operations were taking time to save trapped people from the
mountains of debris, out there somewhere near the table, laid Aamir and
Rehan, both of them unconscious.
Fifteen minutes later, Aamir woke up from the stupor. He was lucky to have
got only bruises. It was very hot and suffocating inside. Aamir badly wanted a
gust of cool, moist wind. His eyes were trying to see the sky but there was a
huge, thick floor carpet covering the space like a tent. On his immediate left he
saw he saw the table covered with a pile of boulders and debris. He had fallen
out of the table but it had managed to shed him off the debris. On his right
there was only debris of plastic, boulders, a broken projector screen and the
chair that he was seated on. In his front he saw a man lying unconscious. Aamir
got up but could not stand as the carpet laid half his height, weighed down by
debris.
Aamir kneeled up to the man. He was Rehan. He was breathing but was laid
unconscious. Aamir tried to get him to consciousness by calling his name again
and again. But Rehan wouldn’t get up.
Aamir made a noise at the top of his voice “Is somebody out there??? Help,
please.” He repeated it ten times, but there was no response.
Suddenly Rehan woke up. He seemed to be running short of breath, and then
took a few deep breaths. Aamir rushed towards him.
“It was an earthquake. But why are we still trapped inside?” Rehan said.
“Hello. Someone get us outside.” Rehan shouted.
They were actually trapped under tonnes of debris. And their sound was
struggling to reach the people outside, every one of whom was running for
themselves or near and dear ones. Suddenly human life seemed devalued. A
lot devalued. 2 PM it was and it was terribly hot inside the debris, yet Aamir
and Rehan were not able to see the sun or its rays.
Rehan reached out for his mobile phone in his suit pocket, but it was no longer
there. They were trapped.

The Conversation
Chapter Synopsis:
Aamir and Rehan are trapped below tonnes of debris. On the other hand, they
had survived a multi-storey building collapse in the midst of it. They had been
presented with an opportunity to live on. Not everyone had got that golden
chance when the calamity happened. What do Aamir and Rehan do to save
their lives? How do they do it? Are they successful? Read on.
4 PM. The sun was beginning to cool down slowly but Aamir and Rehan had no
respite. The loo was still blowing hard but the two trapped were hoping hard
for some fresh air to reach them.
The two had tried to check if they could find a way out, but the boulders were
way too heavy. Shouting intermittently for help, the two lied down over the
pinching pieces of debris, soaked in sweat, thirsty and hungry. Rehan’s
business suit had lost its colour to the dust, while Aamir’s shirt and trousers
were torn at some places.
Rehan said “Let’s conserve our energy now. That’s the only way to survive.”
Aamir disagreed “No, there must be a way out. Let me try at that corner. I see
some light there.” Aamir started pushing the boulders hard.
Rehan intervened “No that won’t be of any use.”
Aamir replied “That’s the only way out. It was a huge earthquake and there
would be many trapped like us all over. I don’t think help is going to reach us
any sooner than we search a way out.”
Rehan responded “That doesn’t mean you waste your energy pushing those
immovable boulders. Let’s look closer and see if we have anything to dig
through.”
Aamir said “Fine. But I don’t see anything like a rod or hammer out here.”
Rehan replied “Let’s look closer. See, here at my left we have the table while
we have heavy boulders on all the other sides. We have a leg of the table

Whispers of Solitude - Amit Ahlawat

Whispers of Solitude - Amit Ahlawat

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