Unexpected Resolutions

I saw this award winning documentary called “Struck, the film” which inspired me to write this article. What was remarkable about this movie was it captured emotions and facts about human life, without much conversation.

The protagonist is shown with a arrow struck in his heart throughout the movie, which adds the bit of humor too. This signifies that he probably had a break up. To resolve his condition, his friend introduces him to various girls, one at a time. Each meeting gives rise to a new sitcom, but always in vain. It turns out that one day, without any plan or expectations he goes to a laundry only to find this beautiful girl. The moment she approaches him, the arrow that had been struck for quite a few days, falls down. And they both live happily ever after.

If we carefully observe our daily life, it wouldn't take much efforts to find incidents where in our problems get resolved at unexpected times, in unexpected ways. When we plan a lot, make a desperate attempt to make things happen, seldom do they happen, especially in the matters of heart. Though ‘Love’ and ‘Logic’, both begin with ‘L’, they hardly coexist. A firm belief that eventually everything is going to work out is the secret to find these unexpected resolutions.

PS: Here's the link to watch that movie http://www.struckthefilm.com/

Comparison

If I begin another post by asking you to pardon me for the delay, I guess I will start sounding very monotonous. So getting straight into the matter, here I go.
Comparison is one human tendency which has existed for ages. Be it sports, academia, or just day to day life, comparison always makes room for itself. So, the question is why do we compare at first? Before answering to this question, I would like to tell you one thing… In life if something has lasted for ever, there has been some benefits out of it. If there were no benefits, a phenomenon cannot last for this long. Hence I would first throw some light at the positives of comparison.

I am of the opinion that if there is a comparison, no one prefers to lose. The human ego brings out the best performance at times, thanks to comparison. Another way of looking at this would be a feel good factor, which leaves us with satisfaction. If we compare ourselves with someone inferior, quite often than not, there is a gratifying feeling that we are superior to someone. This was understood by the great Gautama Buddha and hence when a man complained that he had no footwear, and how his friend had good footwear, the Buddha asked him to look at a man with no legs.

Positive points bring with them some negatives as well. The biggest negative that comparison brings in is jealousy. Mindless comparison and meaningless conclusion, certainly leads to jealousy. There is no greater evil than jealousy in human life. It is believed that the great Buddha fell a victim to his brother’s jealousy and ultimately died. From the time since great Buddha to a recent survey by a premier US Psychology school shows that there is no real change in human attitude. The survey asked people to select one of the two cases
1. Your salary as $100,000/year while your friend’s salary as $75000/year
2. Your salary as $150,000/year while your friend’s salary as $180,000/year
Shockingly, more than 80% people opted to first case, making a sacrifice of $50,000/year, just to see a friend earning less than them.

Based on the above two paragraphs, I need no rocket science to conclude that there is both positive and negative to the phenomenon of comparison. It’s only up to an individual, as to what he decides to do with it. At this point, I would leave you thinking about where you would place comparison in your life?