Colloquialism and communication

What do you say (and how do you say it) when you meet
someone for the firstime in a day?
a) Hello.... how are you doinggg.......?
b) Hey dude.... how u doinn!!

What do you say (and how do you say it) when asking for beer?
a) Excuse me... can you please hand me a can-of-beer?
b) Hey brother... cud u grab a beer for me...?

The answer, in each of the cases, is "it depends".

Choice "a" is more formal and suits when you are engaged in a formal conversation. This language is appropriate for discussions in business meetings, when greeting someone for the first time, or when showing respect to the listener.

Choice "b" is colloquial and showcases your friendly nature (or informality). This language is best when talking to close friends, when in a party, or when being friendly to the listener.

Even though no strict rules apply when to use one choice over the other, one should pay attention to the type of audience when choosing between "a" and "b".

Does a poet hide in each one of us?

I jog and exercise usually in the mornings. A summer morning is friendlier than a winter one, which seldom makes me to step out of the house. Not until 10 AM in the morning during winter, does the sun shine and heat up the earth's surface to comfortable temperatures. Some days just go by with temperatures not reaching even the freezing point. Such days discourage me, for I am a person who loves to play in the sun, enjoy the heat, and sleep in the shade of the tree on any hot day.

Anyways, I write this article to express my "poetic" feelings that fill up my heart during those morning hours when I am on the track jogging and exercising. That's the time the poet in me wakes up, and describes the nature around me. He says:

The blue sky with no clouds to cover its beauty,
showers on me a spell that makes me forget every duty-
neither do I remember the time of the day,
nor do I care what's in my way.
Such is the ecstatic state of my heart
that the cool breeze touching my hair, eyes,
ears, and every part
and the long distant chirps of birds
sooth my tired senses and aching joints,
only making me to do more work and gain more points.
I lay down on the green grass with my nose pointing the blue sky,
my back resting on sharp edges of the grass and my eyes
watching every particle passing by,
I revisit all those happy moments of my life,
thinking why such things are usually not rife.
After few minutes, I console my confused soul that life will go on,
That I will still jog, enjoy, dream, and all my
woes will soon be gone.

Caught in a storm!!

I am in the midst of applying for MBA programs at various schools. After taking GMAT in Sep (on 19th), I spent few months to prepare apps for schools, numerous hours to read, re-read, proof-read, and re-proof-read the apps, and few days to submit the apps. Even though I had few weeks to prepare the apps, I took until the last minutes to click the "submit" button. (Haha... I am perplexed why I waited till the last minute. I believe the attitude is in my blood, that I wait till my adrenaline shoots to those tsunami levels!) Nonetheless, I submitted the apps on time.

After a month submitting the app, today, I am waiting for the results from one of my dream schools - MIT. I put lot of creativity into preparing the app, discussed ideas with many friends numerous times, and created a deadly app (at least I think so). In the process, I formed an unknown relationship with the school and hope to get into the school. In a way, I am obsessed with the school now. This obsession and these "vanity" hopes have put a heavy rock on my small soft heart - I feel the pain, which is caused by the weight/wait.

I look at my emails at least once in every hour, refresh the screen every few minutes to check for any new emails, scavenge through online forums for that one piece of info whether other people on this earth received invites from the school, shoot emails/messages to friends, and read blogs to get any insight into the current situation. Trudging through these strenuous moments for the past few weeks.... waiting for the decision!!

My brain tells my heart not to be so obsessed with the result. In or out, the result has to be dealt with maturity. My brain prepares my heart for the worst (which is to expect a ding (reject)). It preaches that wild obsession is wrong. With the immense competition for limited number of seats, schools have become terribly picky and competitive. It makes sense, thus, not to have any hopes what-so-ever about the admission. Nonetheless, the anxiety of the heart sometimes annuls the capacity, to think objectively, of the brain. Hearts tends to be optimistic, masking the analytical prowess of the brain, which makes some highly intelligent calls. Those are the moments when I get caught in this "unknown" storm, which arises from the question - What is the result? I want to know it now, at this moment, at this second!

Anyways, I am writing this article to remind my heart not to overpower my brain. After reading this passage my brain can find solace and regain control of my heart by puncturing that "virtual" bubble of hope. Only God knows what is the end-result of this journey; whether I get accepted, waitlisted, or dinged. One thing is for sure though - I can still enjoy this part of life without worrying about the result. On the other hand, the result may put me to work anyway - whether preparing for the interview or preparing another application for a different school.

During these troubled moments, my brain reminds my heart to enjoy life no matter what the result is. It reminds my heart of those gaMillion instances when the heart endured gaZillion heavy loads in this numero-uno life. But at times, however, my super-fast mega-intelligent brain has to prod the heart to never, ever, never, ever, never....ever.... get caught in this deadly storm!!

Am I allowed to waste the Godly resource - food?

(This is a conversation between my soul and my physical body (in other words brain)!)
Do I ever think about how much food I waste on a given day?
Did I ever understand how arrogant I was when I throw away plate-fulls of food during a buffet or a family reunion?
With all due respect, my soul asked my body, what makes me so powerful that I waste one of the valuable resources of this earth?

My body was stumped. It had no answer than to throw a customary smile!

Anyways, all this soul-searching started when I was toasting bread for my breakfast. A colleague stepped into the dining area when I was peeling the crust of the toasted-bread. She asked me why I disliked the crust - I had not one clue other than telling her that two slices of bread were too much for a breakfast and, thus, the crust went into the garbage. She grinned and said that she always told her children to respect food and not to waste any. She added that there are millions of people in the world who thrive, who live days, months, years, and even a life, just on that very crust that I threw away.

I did not want to be rude, so did not counter-attack. In fact, I had no valid argument to talk back. I felt that she lectured and disparaged me, but only realized the strength in her argument after few hours of introspection.

I come from a lower-to-middle class family. My parents worked their backs off to get my education at good schools and to inculcate in me some great skills/abilities. I have the resources today to lead a happy eventful life, not only because I worked hard , but mostly because my parents, elders, leaders, and everyone else who lived on this earth before worked in disciplined and dedicated fashion. Elders were disciplined in using the resources they had and they were dedicated to enhance the resources they used. They were disciplined and dedicated to make this world a better place to live.

Now, it's my turn, and all that I do is consume. I leave the task of production to some one else. Despite restoring what I consumed, I waste resources - no wonder my soul calls me an irresponsible knuckle-head! If I can do any help to my future generations, then that would be to be responsible in the way I use resources. Do not waste, do not excessively use anything. Period! I eat only that much my stomach can take and drink only that much my body can retain. I keep my body healthy and help my soul be rich.

Did my soul over-react to a simple aspect? Might be! But I believe such a reaction is needed to get the message clear (Now it makes sense why movies and news media exaggerate facts to the greatest extent.)

In summary, my soul tells me not to waste food, not to waste time, and not to waste the ability of my brain to think and act wisely. It instructs me to share food, time, joy, sorrows, thoughts, and intelligence with others and help others grow, for only in their growth does my growth lies.