Looking back at Hostel life....

Top reasons why a hostel life experience is very important:

To be able to make friends with most people...
To be able to say Good Bye to friends...
To be able to sleep undisturbed with the lights on, the whole night...
To be able to share a bar of a favorite chocolate with five others...
To be able to take a quick bath...
To be able to make a sandwich for a friend..
To be able to attend to an illness...
To be able to break a bad news...
To be able to rejoice at a peer success...
To be able to appreciate a letter, phone call, or email...
To be able to focus amidst heavy music and loud noise...
To be able to crib about things and adjust with them, nevertheless...
To be able to make someones day with a joke, gift, or an honest compliment...
To be able to keep your stance, when you know it works you, no matter what any one says...
To be able to know what does not work for you...
To be able to love your neighbour despite all imperfections...
To be able to understand the other person's priorities better than self...
To be able to give a hug, lend a hand, and spread some cheer when needed...
To be able to hail a support system and hold the fort when things seem to fall apart...

I realized this yesterday when I was talking to a friend who has not been in a hostel and has no clue how to handle too many 'outside interferences' in life. :-) It is difficult to put this thought across to some people: You are in a community and circle and there will be a 'give and take' that makes your life as interesting as it can get.

You can learn all of these even without staying in the hostel, but it will seem a lot harder and will take a lot of time to come to terms with the life around you. Those who have not had a chance to be in a college hostel, may be able to support my statement better. No one said, its all-pink time i college, but hostel does add a rosy touch to college life :) although back in college most people dont realize.

Hostel life for a short time ,with a lot of people around, is one good way to learn more about walking your way through the maze of life... For a completely beneficial hostel life, it has to be in college and not in school.

What all can you save?

I spoke to a friend just now. Here are my thoughts soon after the conversation:

1. We know of a Savings Bank account for money.
2. We know of a Blood Bank that saves blood.
3. We hear about saving interest rates on loans.
4. Credit card banking offers some savings on purchases using specific credit cards.
5. We try to take a definite road to save travel time.
6. We constantly try to think about saving fuel.
7. We hear advertisements stating: Save the Earth, Go Green.
8. We see emails with the signature line: Save paper and environment. Print this only if you must.
9. We think about saving electricity.
10. We talk about rain water harvest which means to save rain water.
11. We want to save our energy and so have a listening ear towards Yoga, Meditation and Health care.
12. Technology has its own contributions for us to save time, effort, and our physical energy : All electronic items, software and automation around speak for this.

The best of all and the often forgotten till December of every year is the leave balance account. Most of us save leave also. That was part of our topic of discussion and here are my thoughts:

Your company gives you leave to utilize it when you need. You do not have to save it like you save money, so you can en cash it or carry forward to the next year. However, if you have some event coming up in the near future and you are blessed enough to know it before, it is okay to save a few days for the next year.

If you are not ill, there is no point in taking sick leave, but if you are unwell and are unable to sit through the day, it is okay to mark a sick leave day and get out of office.

You have been working very late hours; You are putting in long and focused effort at work; And you know you really need a break after that one major release work, take a causal day off. Its very important for a rejuvenated you and a fat pay cheque, the next year.

Remember, some people and occasions are hard to miss. So don't trade off the fun and responsibilities that you cant afford to miss, just because you have a job to do. If your work priorities are manageable ( workable/doable) , take that fun day off to be with your friends and family. If they are not, work your way to get that job done fast, so you can still take time off.

Companies give you sick leave, casual leave and Paid/Annual leave.. Spend them as wise as you would use cash and time.... Wait a minute..... You might want to read about Time and Savings here. Save leave, spend leave and think of encashing your leave balance as the last option.

You are getting paid for what you are doing. If you think, you are not, then change jobs, improve skills, speak to your manager, or do something on those lines.... but never think about leave encashment....if it happens on its own, good for you.

The leave balance is 'Avail'able. Avail adequate leave each year with some discipline and redefine yourself at work, if you think you are not taking enough time off your work and if your family/friends/health is cribbing about you being workaholic.

So here's what all you do save if you spend your leave with some discipline : Relationships and Memories, Blood pressure and energy, and most importantly, Yourself.

Over one crore new mobile connections in October 2009!!!!!
That's from a news cast today in one of the papers.

On Google search for "Mobile Phone Hazards", all you see is only scary threats listed. While you are wondering what would it be like without having a mobile, ( I still cant understand how I managed without a mobile five years ago!!!), there are more and more new models out in the market and more and more new users are joining the mobile phone user community. Cell phone companies continue to make profit.

Same applies to most things.... Computer based jobs are increasingly advocated to cause a lot of health issues and yet there are not many non-computerised jobs in the world. Internet is a boon and also a paranoia kit. Smoking is bad, yet the cigarette company continues to be in business. Drinking is believed to be bad, yet the number of alcohol serving restaurants are increasing every day. Mobile phones are bad for health, they say, yet the number of new connections are on an all-time high!!!!

What's with the increased usage of something and the ever increasing threats about the same thing?
One side of the scale says, " Eat healthy" and the other side says " You are missing something, if you are saying 'No' to this dish"....
One side of the scale says " Its okay to take care" and the other side says " You are paranoid about things"....

One side of the scale always says " Don't" and the other side immediately says " You have not much in life, if you don't"...
But Why??

Waiting and watching and longing....

Yesterday evening scene close to my house:
It was late evening, the street lights flooded the streets and the place looked painted in yellowish orange. I was enjoying the breeze, the soft drizzle, a melodious note on my ipod, rhyming my steps to the tune and walking my way home. The road had orange flowers all over. With the yellowish orange light on the pale brown pavement, the orange flowers looked perfect modern art to my eyes.

I switched off my ipod as I saw two children rushing towards me and then suddenly stopping and then rushing back to their house's gate. An old man said, " This is someone else, your mother will come home in a while, go inside and play, it is already dark. " The children looked very disappointed that it was someone else and not their mother. I felt so sorry to see their disappointment. In Bangalore traffic, God knows where their mother is held up and here I was telling them, " Listen to your grandpa and go in, Your mom is on her way home.. She will be here in few minutes.".. They just gave me a very emphatic No for an answer. They intended to stand there, under the street light and just outside the gate till she gets home.

Children are stressed more than the adults these days, I think because they have to wait for their parents to get home.. I don't know the answer to this, yet, but then makes me wonder aloud about "How to handle this problem?"....

Time and Savings

How many times do we say that we do not have time for prayers, people, phone calls, emails, hobbies, and the list can go on.. Each of us has different reasons to give for not being able to do something and never have one reason why we must consider doing it... I think I have finally stumbled upon that one reason to do all that I would otherwise postpone saying 'No Time'.

Last week, I chanced to read some points that gave me a very different picture about Time. We have about 1440 minutes in a day. Math : 24 * 60 = 1440. I wrote it out just in case you are trying to do a mental math on this. It is as clear as the calculation, that we have a whole 1440 minutes to do all that we want to do in a day..

With this thought, can you just spend a minute to check if you can spend five minutes each day in prayer, 20 minute for friends, 10 minutes to respond to missed calls and text messages, and say another fifteen minutes for music or exercise or some hobby? In all your spend time would still be less than hundred only, but will bring you immense results personally.. You still have another 1340 minutes at your disposal..

If this sounds doable, you have given this math a serious thought.. if it doesn't, try thinking about it once again...You should be able to crack this simple thought.

The same can apply to savings. Every time you think you have not saved enough or you want to save more or want to spend more, all you need to do is check how much you spend for a whole day and then a whole week and then a month. You will be able to separate the need from want, want from comfort and comfort from luxury. Have all these listed separate and see how much you can save per day.

The book said that if a smoker decided to save the money he spends on one of his cigarette packs everyday, then he will have a reasonable savings by the end of the month. Let's see how. Let's say a pack of cigarettes costs about Rs.25. Math : 25 x 30 = Rs. 750. Now, don't you think, this money can come in handy for a quick dinner with a friend, later that month? So, think of that dinner with the friend and cut down on one pack of cigarettes each day. This way, we can identify a lot of things to cut down, to postpone and to minimize until an appropriate time when all these becomes feasible and comfortably affordable.

When we say it is tough to manage the expenses with a given amount of cash, we just need to sit down for a week and watch what is happening to the cash.. and with time, we need to sit down and watch where is it elapsing away like that.. Both cash and time get spent anyway.. The people that claim to have both only invest and spend smarter than the rest of the herd.

As for the savings story, I am not talking about people who are born in royal families and have silver spoon memories. I am talking about those who are earning a monthly pay cheque and are trying to do their best to save, spend and enjoy - all at once.
As for the time story, I am talking about everyone of us. This has no bearing with the financial, social, professional status. You cannot do anything to stop the ticking time which is anyways 24 hours or 1440 minutes for everyone alike.

Small amounts of time invested whole-heartedly and cash invested wisely have their own way of paying you back.