I believe every person has to be a Phoenix in real life. You cannot be give up if you fail once. Rise from the ashes they say, that's what a phoenix does! There will always come a time in your life when you will feel like giving up everything that you have been doing, a time when the going gets tough. It is this time, when your inner strength is tested. You might cry, vent out your frustration. The convention of "Mard ko Dard nahi hota!" (Men never feel pain) is not true. Men do cry, they do feel the pain. Always embrace your emotional side, for your emotional side is what defines your soul.

Taking pragmatic decisions is what the world does these days, but some things need to involve your sentiments.

I am writing all this because I have been feeling too depressed and unmotivated to work lately. That is partly because of a tight schedule, partly because of a lack of change and partly because of a specific reason that I don't wish to mention here. Its easy to give up everything in this down time, even easier to crib about how unfair life has been to you. I did, I did all that! Cried, sat alone thinking about where I was headed in life, what my ultimate goals are, and if I really am working towards it! Found vague answers to all questions, and felt even more frustrated. There's nothing much you can do during this phase, except call up your closed ones and share your so called "sorrow".

It's only when I look around myself that I see people, in a far worse struggle in life than me. Who knows what an auto driver has to go through in the entire day before going home. Who knows if he's at peace in his home? You never know what a street vendor's struggles are, or how a security guard in your society manages his household in his meager wages. Everyone has problems, the magnitude differs. And no matter how much ever bad you think your problem is, there is always someone who is in a condition worse than yours. A person with no shoes, looks at a person wearing boots and feels bad, but then he sees a person with no legs and realizes the superficiality of his sadness.

It is the determination with which you get up after falling, that defines the fire in you. It's not about the dog in the fight, it's about the fight in the dog. Life is all about highs and lows, its not a bed of roses, so the better you are at rising up again, the stronger you will be. Help yourself and God will help you!

Writing is not my cup of tea. But when people say that you should experience everything in life, I cannot agree with them more. So here I am, trying to write, pour out my thoughts as clearly as possible and better my writing skills. I have never been an avid reader or a book enthusiast, and I am not fond of big English words either. I believe in expressing my feelings in a comparatively simple language than by throwing the dictionary on people's faces. Maybe that is partly because I don't know many "big English words", but hey, who cares!

So, I thought of starting this blog mainly because I have never tried something of this sort before. I mean I did start a few blogs a couple of years back, but never really got time to write more than an article or two. But this time, I am going to make an effort to actually write an article per week, not because I HAVE to do it, but because I WANT to do it.

I am really amazed how people change when they leave their home country and come abroad to study. Well I can only say this because I can feel the change in myself. I see a lot of people around me change from what they were a few months back and what they are now. Suddenly, patronizing your own country becomes a "trend". Comparing how things are messed up in your home country, and how those are incredibly smooth in the new land, becomes the epicenter of every discussion. When some might think that this is pretty laughable and talking about it makes them cool, I feel it is utterly degrading to your motherland. I am neither being a patriot here, nor have I just watched the movie 'Swades', I am just being a little sensitive to my country, and I feel it deserves it. I totally understand that the amount of opportunities you get in your home country, are comparatively lesser than what the new country would offer you, or a certain government procedure might cost you more time and money, or the traffic jams might take forever to clear, or the reservations might just bug you out, but always remember that this was the country that you were born in, a country that let you live in peace and harmony with your family, which never restricted you from doing anything, a country that made you what you are today.

I have often noticed this among foreigners, that they know of India as a place with a lot of history, ancient structures, beautiful scenery, a rich heritage and smart people. We Indians potray our country in front of them as a place with illiteracy, corruption, and a lot of other negative things. Whereas the fact is, that India is the fastest developing country in the world and great world leaders have already recognized that the 21st century is going to belong to India. It is high time according to me that we as the responsible citizens of India, need to envision its future and growth and work towards it no matter which part of the world you are in.

Every country has some flaws, doesn't mean we need to show it to the world. If you have a weakness, you don't show it to the world, you hide it and overcome it. Shouldn't we do the same? Showing the world about the bad side of India, is morally incorrect on our part as it's young generation. It is high time that we start appreciating the good things in our country and try to work on the few negative things. I am not saying that the western culture is harmful for the Indian society, but we should stop going gaga about it. There are a few things that we really need to incorporate from the western culture and some things that we can ignore. Before accepting westernization, I am strongly of the opinion that we must study our own culture fully. Many of the young generation have little or no knowledge of their own culture, and because ignorance is bliss, they misconceive the Indian culture. A little insight into it and then they can make a rightful choice of the culture they want to follow.

Contrary to the contents of the above article, I am totally not a philosophical person but I do not know where all that came from. Maybe just some frustration venting out. That's all for today.