The Pursuit of Perfection

I am not yet perfect; But I am the best!!!

Well, I just had a dream. I was running on a strip of rainbow. I was trying hard to run on the Green strip, because that is the middle of a rainbow, the ‘perfect’ middle. I wonder why the dream was precise about the middle of the rainbow strip. I was trying so hard to run on exactly the green colour, because my coach was very particular about it. He was trying to get me to win. But I was not interested. I was only scared to not step out of the Green colour because he was a perfectionist. In the end I was not even sure if I won the race or not or if there were other participants or not. I only remembered that I tried not to step out of the Green colour ever. But I was not even sure if I achieved it or not. Strange, I thought later. But not so much either.

So, where does it leave this post with the pursuit of perfection? What did I achieve? Was my coach happy? Does it matter if I was on the Green strip or the red? Does it matter if I won? But my coach was happy. Does that matter at all to me? Or even to him?

I remember my mother’s perfection in folding clothes. It does not need to be ironed at all after she folds them. I remember that none of our school uniforms were ever ironed. Perfection! The certifying authority was the necessity of the clothes to be ironed.

Is perfection achievable? Is it definable? It is explainable? What about excellence? Perhaps excellence is worth pursuing. But then again, who certifies excellence as excellence? The mind caters to all this mumbo-jumbo. Does a happy heart run behind perfection? Are happy people perfect? Happy people are content. Are content people perfect? This is a paradox and hardly a question. I think life has various meanings for various people. And two people with two different minds have different yardsticks about perfection.

Was Buddha perfect? Leaving his family behind to pursue spirituality can hardly be called wise. But can Buddha be blamed? He was definitely an imperfect father and imperfect husband. What standards would we use to judge if he was a perfect man? Attaining nirvana under a bodhi tree leads to perfection? What about Lord Krishna with 16,000 wives and stealing butter everyday? Was he moral? Ethical? Were the greatest scientists of humanity perfect? Did they get perfect results the first time they experimented? Albert Einstein was sent away from school by his teacher because he was not good in mathematics.

Perfection in homemaking chores, perfection in parenting, perfection in dancing, singing, movie making, perfection in grades, perfection in relationship (now this is something worth thinkable for which there is not answer), oh well, the pursuit of perfection for everything in this universe is worth pursuing when the certifying authority understands you, understands your efforts. I think results should be judged by the efforts than standards and measures and rules. Oh, but the rules of the games are made by perfectionists, aren’t they!!! Fruits of your efforts are tasted by only you and the sweetness known only to you. But the world rants on!!!

I wonder what made George Will, the Pulitzer Prize winner say, “The pursuit of perfection impedes improvement”. But I strongly agree.

2012: My blogging predictions!

Mayan Calendar

Now, that the world is going to end on 21st Dec 2012 as per the Mayan Calendar (*I seriously don’t think so! We Homo sapiens, can’t be let off so easily, huh!*), I am going to come up with predictions of my own too, at least my personal blog-post predictions? You want the truth? Check out the things in parentheses… lol!

Jan 1st: I write my first post of the year applauding my handsome DH of staying home all day with me and DS. (*** Huh?! I wish…!! Surely an emergency lung diseased person is going to get admitted and DH is going to rush to the E&R – joys of being a happy homemaker with a physician husband at critical care ***)

Jan 10th: I sign up for something as silly as postaday2012 and write ferociously just about every day and win an award from WordPress to have kept up my resolutions. (*** If only wishes had wings and hopes had brooms. I don’t long to keep up with my writing resolutions, because I don’t long for things I won’t/can’t get anyway. The grapes are sour. ***)

Jan 20th: I start realising that writing every day does not matter, only writing matters and I write a nice longpost about the perils of emptying your creativity in everyday writing (*** see, didn’t I tell you??? You saw it coming after all, didn’t you? ***)

Feb 5th: I write extolling what a wonderful man DH is and get him a wonderful gift for his birthday and write about the joys of being a wife to such a loving person. (*** Did your read this post? I promised myself I would never ever do this kind of thing ever in my/his entire longest life. Want to know why? Huh, who cares? Right! The world is ending on 21st Dec anyway. ***)

March 3rd: 6 years of parental journey! Can it ever get better? Being a mother is joyful. It is bliss. Parenting books help. I bring up the best boy in town. I write all about my fortune of being the best mother to the best child. (*** Seriously, you want to know why I decided I have had my one, and done with parenting? But, well, yes, life is indeed benevolent with everything happening around, so, happy birthday DS :)  ***)

March 25th: Summer is a wonderful time and I am waiting for DS’s holidays to begin so that we sign up for those wonderful interesting classes and fun activities and summer clubs and camps and such. It’s all going to be exciting, trust me! Post about fun and merriment and excitement! (*** All mothers of toddlers and young boys, out there, you know the perils of staying at home with one, all day who expends all your energies and creativity. In having to entertain and keep a young boy happy for 24 hours a day for 2 months what all a mother does!!! I know, I feel your compassion from the opposite side of the word! Trust me, I do! How can the world end when so soon? Come on, we mothers have a lot more karma to expel! ***)

April 27th: That post about life being beautiful, life being benevolent, and a pic about the evening sky with the setting sun from my terrace, roof top pics and such. (*** Look at how the posts are getting wider apart! Oh yes, it is summer holidays and I have no time to check FB or WP, but having a grinding… err loving time with my son full day at home! ***)

May 18th: Happy birthday to me! I am a year younger, not older, post! happy sunshine post! My birthday gives me joy and happiness post! la la la! (*** Who cares, I am beyond it. Seriously, you never find time or interest anyway. You wish for, maybe! But no, you do not get your favourite fuchsia coloured Dell laptop or that sleek solitaire ear drops! I have decided to stop dropping hints like this anyway for DH to read and ‘surprise’ me! Life is beyond sucking too anyway! ***)

June 15th: A post explaining school reopened for DS. How I miss him. How I have nothing to do at home and the place looks empty. (*** Seriously, ‘now I got a breather’ post is more in the way! And DH saying how he never gets to spend time with his darling little boy and I get to hog away all of DS’s attention and time. Seriously, come on, I welcome you to share the work load of bringing up an intelligent, tech-savvy, young boy all by yourself! ***)

July 15th: Art, craft, project work post, learning nowadays is fun at school! Lucky DS! (*** Know something, I hate this kind of work load! On top of cooking, cleaning, home making, tolerating a DH who is hardly at home at all, I have to work late into the night getting up DS’s school project work ready. I have to come up with ideas all by myself from the internet, from my own nook and cranny of the ‘vast’ convolutions of the grey and white matter within the skull and build it up. Ooofff!!! But I write a beautiful post about how interesting it was to make the project, take cute pics and put it up!!! Oh man! Seriously!!! We all need to be a bit more honest writing posts for popularity. hmmpphh! ***)

August 25th: Indian Independence day just went by 10 days ago! ‘We did this and that’ post! (*** translates to nothing to report basically in my dull, drab boring saga called life. ***)

September 30th: Whatever post! I need to satiate my reader list! Really! (*** Notice the posts going wide and apart to each other? Was I the one who signed up for postaday2012 crap and Plinky stuff? You bet!!! I am full of inspirations and motivations!!! And LAZINESS!!! ***)

I hibernate in October. Its official!! I need a break too! And autumn is the best time to vegetate!

November 1st: Home making post of de-cluttering, decorating, rejuvenating the spirit of homeliness! November is Diwali time in india and with it, visitors arrive, hence a cleaning up post! (*** Home makers are seriously the most underpaid, most under appreciated lot of the working community! They sacrifice their whole life for something which has no returns, really!!! Did I quit my high paying, glamorous programming white-collar job to scrub the kitchen tiles twenty times a week? ***)

December whatever: I am way beyond caring! Surely a ‘the world ends now’ post! Was that 21st? Heck! I wish it ends now!!! My ‘desperate times’ post! Desperate not for the world going to the dogs, but well, this thankless life! Oh heck, who ever thought their life was thankful??!!! Oh, I forgot the parentheses and beautiful asterisk. Oh, after all, the world is ending; ‘let me be honest with myself’ post!!! So, when the world ends, surely the server where this WordPress is hosted would get destroyed? Would there be back ups for back ups? Or whatever? Will this post be lost in oblivion like us all? ‘My musings’ post and my ‘philosophical words of awe and wonder and thought’ post!!! Ah, ‘life is strange’ post and the ‘world lives on’ post!

That surely was a long post for December, huh? or perhaps multiple posts! Ia m catching on, you see..!

So, there!!! Maybe if I get to mark all those posts on the above image of the Mayan Calendar, I would still consider my writing blogger life successful in 2012!

Happy New Year guys! Come on, I don’t think it really ends in December 2012. Surely, world would not quit so soon!!!

Have a little hope! And share your hope Let me know what are your blogging predictions for 2012?

THE ALCHEMIST’s BLOG – so goes the name…

The Alchemist's Blog

You know, often the most coveted treasure we seek out, the emotional solace we look for to cushion us, and even the intellectual wealth we seek out from books are all within us.

Each one’s quest, his dreams, his journey, his destination lies deep within himself and it takes time to realize that. So, why am I saying all this? Well, as a regular reader of this blog, you need to know why I have named it this. 

Have you read the book, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho? “Who has not”, I hear y’all! Well, the protagonist Santiago searches all around the world for his secret treasure, meets his beloved on the way, in his journey, and then, finds his treasure, in his own backyard. I was so fascinated by the climax, rather anti-climax of all this. The first time, I read the book; I was almost imagining the secret treasures from the Pyramids to pop out anytime, the magic carpets and golden lamps and genies of Arabia to fly into the pages, and the mystic oriental east,Indiaand her crowning gloryHimalayasto visit the next chapters. But ah, no, this guy Coelho knows his own heart. 

Yes, if you have not read that book yet, please, go ahead; get your own personal copy. Whenever I need inspiration, whenever I need solace, this book is one those I read, amongst the many other things I do. 

So, why the name, “The Alchemist’s blog?” Ah, come read this blog, find out what your treasure, through the chronicles of my journey, spread the love, learn to live, find the zest for being joyful, bask in the Lord’s grace, and all along, find out the purpose of your existence and take your beloved ones along!

Be your own Alchemist! Seek out the Alchemist within.

Share your own inspiration in the comments section and spread the motivation.

Quality, Quantity, Compromise and an Anniversary

I was speaking to my ex-project coordinator yesterday. Well, technically, not speaking, but chatting up on the virtual world! Something he said, stuck out from the conversation and that was, now you are earning quality money, writing.

Well, I actually earn only about less than ten percent of what I used to earn working as a software engineer, designing car electronics. I used to crib the whole day. But I cribbed at work, I cribbed at home, I even cribbed here at the blog.

Now, I quit for various reasons. Maybe if you want to know why, read this post later. So, now the extra income is missing. But we as a family are having a quality life. Quality care for my DDS, Quality care for DDH (though he never admits it), I mean I think of him at least eighteen times more often now, than I used to one year ago. So, isn’t that quality remembrance? And it is with fondness. (Ok, he won’t ever believe it, but anyway, there, I said it!) 

So, the point is, now I earn quality money, enjoying what I do, enjoying my work, admiring the product of my efforts, and actually loving it. I love what I write and I hope the readers do too. So, quality money (but well, less).

And a huge compromise it is! I can not really afford to not have the money. But there, I have gone through one year of existence without my income. I have learnt to be dependant on the DDH. I have learnt to be frugal to some extent(Ah, the DDH wont believe this either ). I have learnt to compromise on things and not feel bad about it.

I have learnt to live the purpose of my existence.

And happy one year anniversary to myself for making it. (Technically it is one year and one month, but you can all wish me anyway, because I am announcing it now… lol )

 And thanks PKAdka, for reminding me of the memories .

P.S: The irony of the image is that I wanted to symbolically say that one (the keyboard which I used as a software engineer) was my earlier cake winner and the other (pen as a writer) is my bread winner. But ah, well, in the digital age, gifted to us by ex-software engineers like me, I sadly use the keyboard now like earlier . Perhaps, later sometime, I would elucidate the joys of writing something using the pen .

Photo credit to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keyboard_and_pen.JPG

Let me BE.

 

 

 

Let me be led from laziness to purposefulness.

Let me be led from being idle to a being of use.

Let me be led from anger and hatred to being detached.

Let me be led from nonchalance to compassion.

 

Let me share and spread the Love.

Let my life be what it ought to be.

Let me just Be what I have to Be!

          

My brush with fame

 

INDIA: Interview with The Alchemist.

The Alchemist and her son

So guys, I am almost a celebrity. Well, not really. But, my interview got published there on WorldMomsBlog.com.

It actually feels good. That is one place I really love. Writing about being a mother and the parenting sagas is really a wonderful way to keep up a memoir.

Getting interviewed by WorldMomsBlog sure was fun. Go ahead, click and read my interview.

You are welcome to leave your comments and thoughts on WorldMomsBlog site.

INDIA: My “It Happened” Moment

INDIA: My “It Happened” Moment.

Thats my latest post at World Moms Blog. Go ahead, click it, read it and leave comments at World Moms Blog.

My first post at WorldMomsBlog

So guys, there I wrote my first post at WorldMomsBlog. You can read it here. It was about my feelings when we came to know DDS needed to wear glasses. hush.. I would say no more. Now, off you go there and read it all up and leave your comments. And yes, I blog there under the name of “The Alchemist”.

http://worldmomsblog.com/2011/02/09/india-in-the-eyeglasses-of-the-beholder/

Blogger-Writer for WorldMomsBlog

There has been one interesting and happy thing which is happening in my life right now when I was wondering how I was going to keep myself sane being just a Stay-At-Home-Mom, Home maker and writer. I know that’s a long list of things to do in a day. But I was once this corporate, stylish and tech-savvy woman who balanced a career and baby and felt proud about it. And gave excuses to not cook and keep the house tidy because she had so many things to do. Oh well, when the drama ended, that is, I decided to one day quit my career and be at home for good, because I realized that my son’s childhood will not be back and I would suddenly find myself having lost him to the mean world and mourning it with an empty-nest syndrome. So, I quit. Period. End of drama.

Mommy Blogger

So, one day when I was deleting all my unread mails (ahem..), I noticed a mail from WP which said someone called Sweet B liked something about my blog. I visited her blog and thanked her for commenting, liking and visiting and one thing led to another and here I am a blogger-writer, for a wonderful site called WorldMomsBlog. It is a group of mothers from all the over world who share and read each other’s parenting ideas, techniques and support each other. I met a few wonderful ladies out there and feel honored to hang out there when not rambling here.

So, there, I just officially announced that I am a writer for someone other than not me and my site. You guys should continue patronizing me there too. I would continue to blog here though as always.

My first post there which is a part of a series called ‘Friday Question’ just got published. You can read it here. I blog there with the same pen name ‘the Alchemist of India’; so, you should be finding it easy to link with me there too.

My bio there would be up shortly. I would post about it here too with a link.

I dont blog, I write.

I dont blog, I write

You know, there are so many different reasons for a person to write out stuff in a personal page and make it public. I also have many, reasons that is. Its almost similar and almost different from just about my fellow blogger’s page in the neighboring server.

So, here I go…

My Diary – I like to think of it as, a personal diary at times, and those posts go into password protect, otherwise it gets published to the world. I like to record those things in my daily life which touch me deeply, life like things I wrote here and here and here. Oh, otherwise, I live a very boring existence out here in mumble-land.

My fantasies – Like the other day I posted about Krishna being here and alive in the 21^st century. I also posted a few other things which have been under password protect, and I am contemplating tweaking it slightly and posting it publicly, well, shortly.. You know, I am just trying to build up the suspense in this paragraph  lol 

Fame and Name and Vain – Oh yes, just like the next door guy, I like fame and name(we will come to the vain part in a while). But who is not? I just try to let it not get to the top of my head. When I receive a lot of comments, I become happy and reply to them all painstakingly. Sometimes I write back to the people who comment thanking them and requesting them to visit again. So, being famous is not that bad, I try to be a famous nice person. And coming to the last part, vain - defined as exaggerated sense of self importance by the word web . So, whether I am important today or not, I strive to be worthy of the pride I aspire to touch lol… I think I muddled that up. Anyways…

Meeting people – I meet people I would not meet otherwise. I am not going to spend money (in this economy) and travel half the world to meet an Illustrator in the USA. I love reading what she does and draw inspiration from her. I have also met amazing people from so many places. I am not a compulsive traveler, so I wouldn’t dream of meeting all these people by really traveling. … … … … Ok, you want the truth, I was not born with any spoons made of precious metal in my mouth, hence I make out my daily living from the monthly salary… err DDH’s salary. So, uh travelling? Well, maybe to the beach, since I live in coastal India… lol..!

Good friends – I am still a very positive person who thinks this world is filled with a lot of nice people and lot of positive people like me. The other day I met one of my very good friends in person for the first time and I wrote about it here. She is one amazing woman. We became great friends over the internet and then decided to meet. This avenue opens up possibility of rich friendships. I know, I owe you a call. Coming up shortly.

Promote that I am a writer – What good way to promote myself to be a writer than to write itself? All my posts are inspired by my love to write and I am planning and dreaming on becoming a novelist and publicizing it here. So, there, I said it again

Be passionate – I am passionate about certain things and people. So, when they affect me in different ways, maybe happily or with sorrow or which should make me vent, I blog, not necessarily about them. I write about just something or the same thing or about beautiful things in Timbuctoo. Writing is a very wonderful stress buster as well as a pleasure buster for me.

So, I write, because I like to write and the geeks nowadays call it blog. lol .