Better to Express than to Repent

Unlike my last few posts, this one is not based on current affairs or an article. The inspiration behind this post is a friend of mine, whose two experiences helped me understand a beautiful concept in life. Before you start reading this one, here is a quick background. This friend is in his mid-twenties, yet doesn’t have (never had) a girlfriend.

During his college days, he liked a girl. One day he decided to express it to her. He gave her a call and expressed his feelings. The girl denied it, as she already was in a relation with someone else. As a result of this, he was heart-broken for couple of weeks. Enough time passed and he was doing fine.

Life at times tests you beyond imaginations and throws again those tricky situations at you. It turned out that, he again liked a girl, a co-worker, years later. But this time, he played it safe. He never told her about his feelings. The girl whom he liked, eventually became his best friend at office. Again, enough time passed and one day this girl handed him her wedding invitation. This time too my friend was devastated. Now rose the doubt in his mind that had he expressed his feelings to this girl, things would have probably worked out. This doubt had no (will never have a fruitful) resolution.

When I last spoke to him, he confessed that earlier rejection was way better than suppressing the feelings. He is sure that his doubt will never allow him to be at peace. Just to avoid some embarrassment, he opted for a bigger punishment. Maybe it is okay to have the attitude “better safe than sorry” in most instances of life. But when it comes to the matters of heart, along with playing it safe, it is always better to express your feelings and lighten up than repent for not expressing.

I am signing off this post with a quote which I recently read, goes something like this, “Often you will repent more for those things that you didn’t do than those which you did”

PS: This post is dedicated to whomsoever it may concern.

Two Nobel Souls

Not even a week has gone by since the announcement of Nobel prizes in various fields for this year and each news paper has come up with its exciting piece of trivia about the winners. This has been followed by some interesting opinions from the common people as well.

This year’s two Nobel laureates who interested me the most are… yes you guessed it right!

• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for Chemistry
• Barack Obama for peace.

Let’s start with Venky (as he is popularly known as). He shot to fame among a billion Indians just in one day. Every Indian was proud of him being Indian rather than an exceptional individual, in this field of work. In fact people further started crediting his success of him being born in a particular state or having studied in a particular state and so on. Let us get it straight. His achievement is phenomenal, but individual and has got nothing to do with his roots. Even he said that he believes more in people rather than nations. The bottom line is, such achievements are individual and not national and do little or no good to a country as such. Especially when someone represents an institution of other nation, it would be less apt to claim his credit on behalf of his roots. This reminds me of quote by another Nobel laureate, George B. Shaw. “Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it”

Now coming to Barack Obama, here is what I feel. The question that arises first is, does he actually deserve it? Well, that’s for the Nobel Committee to decide, as per Alfred Nobel’s will. But in general the opinion amongst most people is that he doesn’t. To a fair extent, he may not deserve it this time. Though he might have a lot of positive ideas, hardly any of his ideas have been comprehensively converted into actions in such a short time. Also, a Nobel peace prize for a country head, which has highest nuclear arsenal, is a little ironical. Or maybe like Nobel, who invented 'dynamite' and believed that it will never be used for destructive purposes, the committee is also hoping that Obama will never use any of the nuclear weapons that the US possesses.

Whatever it is, there is always some sort of controversy that surrounds a Nobel Prize. Who is the right person to win it, is always a debatable point. In spite of all this, Nobel Prize has its own importance. Thanks to Alfred Nobel, for creating such an interesting will, which serves as a great source of motivation to many. And this reminds of one more quote by George B. Shaw, which goes something like this. “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a friend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize”