The attitude of gratitude

As we walked, searching our way to the theatre, we asked a stranger, "Bhaiya, M2K cinema kahan padega?" He told us the way and she said with a smile to that stranger, "Thank you bhaiya". I walked briskly, she held my hand and said, "Aren't you supposed to say thanks to that person?" I didn't give a heed to her.
Neverthless, I tried thanking someone. I was sitting in a dhaba and the waiter served me. I said, "Thank you uncle". He smiled back. That moment I realised how important it is to be thankful. I didn't lose anything by being thankful but someone gained a smile for a moment.
I was sitting with her a beautiful bookshop with a coffee house attached. There were lots of diaries in the stationary shelf. Enticed by the beauty of the handmade, chinese silk diaries, we bought two diaries for ourselves. She asked me, "What are we going to do with it?" I thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it 'thank you diary'. We will write in it every night before we sleep. We will write about all the things we are grateful to." She loved the idea and we started writing it.
"Thank you God for giving me prosperity that I can eat everyday."
"Thank you God for sending a stranger to show me the way when I was lost in the market."
"Thank you God for the wonderful family I have."
"Thank you God for good health."
"Thank you God for making me meet my soulmate."
We filled pages over pages. Every night, when we wrote about being thankful, the attitude of gratitude got engraved in us. She was always grateful to evrything and everyone. It was I who lacked it. But I learnt from her how to be thankful.
There are millions of things and hundreds of people to whom we can be thankful. Expressing that 'thanks' makes their day. How many people would say "thanks" to the watchman of their locality? Just one 'thanks' to him can bring a smile on his face.
With time, I stopped writing in my 'thank you diary'. And I regret it. My arrogance again took over my gratefulness and I stopped being thankful. I pledge to start writing it again. You may also give it a try. The best time to write it is night time before you sleep. With this, you sleep with positive thoughts. It's good to write because when you write, you do it with intention. Mere thinking won't help much. It also forms a discipline activity when you write in a routine. Let's try it!

Everyone should and must enjoy

On a college visit, Michael Dell was asked by a student, "Michael, you are the youngest billionaire. You can just sell everything and buy a beach house, girls around, own a yacht and have fun all your life." Michael Dell exclaimed, "That's sounds boring. You have any idea how much fun it is to handle a multi-million dollar company?"

These lines made me go deep inside myself. While watching a deeply intellectual movie, I often thought, 'I am enjoying this movie so much. I am glad that I can think so much. Can people who don't think such stuff or people who are just too dumb, enjoy so much like I am doing?'

I got my answer. I enjoyed pubbing long time back and then quit it because I stopped enjoying it. I am sure the people who are still in there might think the same: people who don't do pubbing, can they enjoy as much as we do?

Everyone has his own way of enjoying life. Some people enjoy action movies, some comedy, some romantic. Some people get high on rock music, some get fresh on ghazals. But there's one category of people who don't enjoy as much as others do. They're the people who don't do what they want to do. Someone might love travelling but can't do it because of parental or monetary constraints. Someone might love socializing but doesn't have courage or is shy to do so.

So what is it that makes you enjoy life?

Is it freedom? It could be physical freedom to move out of the home anytime you want. It could be financial freedom to spend however and wherever you want.

Is it courage? To have freedom one must have courage. So courage could be something one needs to enjoy life.

Is it open-mindedness? I was bored of my music collection. But I was open-minded enough to try out Bhajans and now I really enjoy them.

It came to me finally. It's "people". Yes, I love to watch movies but it's even more fun if I share it with people. Yes, I love to listen to music but it's even more fun when I listen to it with my friends or with my girlfriend. There's no fun pubbing alone. It's fun to dance. But the fun increases manifold when there are people around you. Even for the shiest person, dancing along with someone he knows is more fun than dancing alone in his room. There could be few things that are fun doing alone but that fun wanes off. Maybe a lot of people know this, but very few actually realize it and think about it. Those who do, they care for people because they know how valuable people are.