PERFECTION........

Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle!”

- Michelangelo

Once Michelangelo was working on a statue for several days and he was taking a long time to retouch every small detail, which seemed rather insignificant to a bystander. When asked why he was doing this, Michelangelo replied, “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle”. Most people forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well it was done.

There are two ways of getting rid of weeds in your yard. The easy way is to run a lawnmower and the yard will look fine for a while, but that is a temporary answer. Soon the weeds grow back. But the not-so-easy way would mean getting down on your knees and slowly pulling out the weeds by the roots. This is time-consuming, tedious and would take a long time but the weeds would stay away for a very long time.

In today’s fast paced world, everyone is looking for instant formulae for success and instant gratification. People seek short-term gains and not long-term benefits. This is a limited vision and can bring only limited results. Today, people want to become rich overnight, but shortcut methods, more often then not, make them compromise on their integrity. The money comes in but brings in only momentary pleasures for along with it comes anxiety, fear and guilt.

Success is but a flash in the pan. True fulfillment and sustained results come only through working relentlessly towards the goal one has set. Goal setting itself involves a series of steps. Goals, as Mr. Shiv Khera points out, should be SMART: S-specific, M-measurable, A-achievable, R-realistic, and T-time-bound. And to realize such a goal, it is absolutely essential to plan and prepare. “Everyone has a will to win but very few have the will to prepare to win”. A complete mental and physical preparation requires sacrifice and self-discipline. This is no doubt difficult but the result is the best. Disorganized labor leads to naught.

Having decided on the course to follow, one needs to have persistence. Nothing can take the place of persistence, not even talent and genius.

Fritz Kreisher, the great violinist, was once asked, “How do you play so well? Are you lucky?” He replied, “It is practice. If I don’t practice for a month the audience can tell the difference. If I don’t practice for a week, my wife can tell the difference. If I don’t practice for a day, I can tell the difference”.

Persistence means commitment and determination and this comes from a sense of purpose.

So, don’t look for one-minute solutions to everything. Quick fixes do not bring a sense of fulfillment. Moreover, this attitude is apt to lead to disappointments. Remember that triumphs do not come without sustained efforts.

When the going is tough....

I would smile

Say words to soothe

Grip hands to affirm

My trust, my faith,

To transmit energy

Convey how much I care.

I would unfurl

The golden pages and

Recall who I am.

My spirit strengthened

I would soar, strive

To realize, not analyze

Dreams that must be dreamt.

I would shut the cacophony around

And composed within

Write a symphony of

Harmonious notes.

I would believe that

“ the secret of life

Is to make stepping stones

Out of stumbling blocks.”

I would learn

That to be shaken

Is not to be broken

That my yesterday

Will again be tomorrow

As it must.

I would, wisdom dawned

Learn to remember:

My destiny is not

The slope of the valley

But, guided by the stars

Is to claw up the climb

In the stillness of night

To an applauding world.

-- Donn Doongaji

Memoirs of a Geisha

Welcome again Friends,

This time I have been reading a book “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. I wonder if you have read it yet. And it is simply captivating. “A story with the social vibrancy and exquisite lyricism, set in the alluring setting of pre second world war Japan. . . . This is a high-wire act. . . . Rarely has a world so closed and foreign been evoked with such natural assurance. "

This novel is about the fictional true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha(Geisha are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation). Chiyo, a young girl, daughter of a poor fisherman, gifted with a pair of extraordinary beautiful eyes is taken to faraway Kyoto and sold to slavery to a renowned Geisha house, as it is great depression and her father can no longer afford to bring her up. there at the geisha house after being sold, she is renamed as Sayuri. Initially reluctant, Sayuri must finally invent and cultivate an image of herself as a desirable geisha in order to survive in Gion's cruel hierarchy. Through her eyes, we are given a backstage view of the ancient and secretive geisha district, Gion, and of the lives of the women who learn and practice the rigorous arts of the geisha. Behind its facade of haunting beauty the district turns out to be a viciously competitive place where women vie desperately for men's favor and largess, where a young girl's virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder, where personal trust is almost nonexistent, and where no woman can afford even to dream about love or happiness. A timeless pocket of the world, Gion cannot remain cut off from the bustle of the modern era forever. When Japan enters the Second World War, Gion's isolation is finally breached and Sayuri must once again reinvent herself and her way of existence.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a treasure of a book, an unparalleled look at a strange and mysterious world which has now almost vanished. It is also, and unforgettably, a dazzling portrait of a singular and most seductive woman who tells her story in a compelling first person voice. A book of nuances and vivid metaphor, of memorable characters rendered with humor and pathos. And though the story is rich with detail and a vast knowledge of history, it is the transparent, seductive voice of Sayuri that the reader remembers.

In this novel, Arthur Golden has done a very daring thing: he, an American man, has written in the voice of a Japanese woman. And has succeeded in it.

And in the end, it seems to send a message that is applicable not only to Nitta Sayuri, but to all of us. The message is: “our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like a watery ink on a paper”.

So Friends, go ahead and read it if you haven’t as of yet. For, it is truly breath taking and captivating, taking you to a different WORLD which no longer exists.

My first entry

Welcome all.

Well this is my very first entry, in my very first blog. And since, I believe in straight talk..let me state what I'll be posting here..I'll mostly be writing about the books that i have been reading (well, the influential ones), quotes from them, about politics, love, my life( some interesting events off course!).

To start with;

the idea of writing a blog struck me not because it is something glamorous to do these days (as most of my friends do it because it is something in vogue), but something that struck me when I went through these lines of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Well, the lines are:

" I know people who read interminably, book after book, from page to page, and yet I should not call them 'well-read people.' Of course they 'know' an immense amount; but their brain seems incapable of assorting and classifying the material which they have gathered from the books. They have not the faculty of distinguishing between what is useful and useless in a book; so that they may retain the former in their minds and if possible skip over the latter while reading, or if that be not possible, then- when once read- throw it overboard as useless ballast. reading is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. It's chief purpose i to help towards filling in the framework which is made up of talents and capabilities that each individual possesses. Thus each one procures for himself the implements and materials necessary for the fulfillment of his calling in life, no matter whether this be the elementary task of earning one's daily bread or a calling that responds to higher human aspirations. such is the first purpose of reading. And the second purpose is to give a general knowledge of the world in which we live....each little piece of knowledge thus gained must be treated as if it were a little stone to be inserted into a mosaic, so that it finds its proper place among all the other pieces and particles that help to form a general world-picture in the brain of the reader."

I am an avid reader, I read as if there is no tomorrow, but then I don't read without purpose, as these books for me are like a peep into a different world or the same world but with a different view of things and people, that usually escapes our eyes. I keep on collecting each little piece of knowledge gained from these books to form a world-picture in my mind. Just like a child fits in the jumbled parts of a jig-saw puzzle to form a concrete picture. Because, what we always see around us might not be always true, it is a luminous halo and we don't know what to make out of something in front of us. But, these books, they help us reflect on our general surrounding and to form a more concrete and true picture of the world around us.

And thus, coming back to the purpose of my writing a blog is that sometime back somebody said that "knowledge gained and not shared is knowledge wasted". And I hope that sharing the knowledge I gain by reading these books helps you and me in some ways.