A little less ME

In our personal or professional lives, almost all of us have this excessive need to be 'me'. We are self obsessed and cling to satisfying the "me" in ourselves. The consequences are not positive oftentimes.

We keep repeating such clauses either verbally, or in a constant internal monologue- "I do this", " I dislike this", "...this is not my cup of tea", "...how dare thy say that about me", "...because I ain't ever mistaken, I won't apologize." , "Hey, that's me. Deal with it." and so on. We surround ourselves with a wall of our rules, our superiority, our appreciation, our opinion, our definition of good or bad around us. Setting a definition for ourselves and devoting our senses to keep up to that by resisting anything that comes in the way, is indeed harmful.

Once in a while, give it a thought that if you keep aside the pointless notion of ME, you'd certainly open new gates for yourself and lead to a long term change in your behavior. Moreover, you'll make people feel better about you.

As Marshall Goldsmith quotes in his book What Got You Here Won't Get You There, "It's an interesting equation: Less me. More them. Equals success." And "It's not about you. It's about what other people think of you."

The mantra is- "laugh at your yourself; apologize frequently; show gratitude whenever possible and learn from each person you meet."

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Bookworm

I've recently introduced this section on book reviews. I am not an avid reader, but have started cultivating the habit of reading lately. My book reviews may be naive taking the benefit of doubt that I am at the infant stage of it! I have started reading a little late than I should have done, because till now I could have finished a few dozen more books. Nevertheless, it's better late than never. 

Now that I have read a few books and continuing to read more, new insights for life have emerged in my senses. I feel satisfied to pen down my evolving opinions here.

 I hope you would appraise this new section, and also suggest me some books which I can dive into. After all, books wash away from the soul, the dust of everyday life.

And as they say- 
"Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light."

If you are an author and want your book to be reviewed, drop an email at bookreviews@mansiladha.com.

(PS: the reviews expressed on my website are based on my personal reading experience, and do not intend to defame, derate or degrade the sale or the contrary for any book. I am not paid for writing the reviews, unless otherwise stated in the post.)

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"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination "

-Web

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You can’t lose what you never had. You can’t keep what’s not yours. And you can’t hold onto something that doesn’t want to stay.

-Internet

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Hathon Me Aa Gaya Rumaal Aapka-to-Saree ke Fall Saa

Interesting though, I have titled this post to make a note of the apparent transition that music has seen with time, and how it occurs to me. The lyrical journey of Hindi songs - from Hindi to Hinglish and Funjabi; the experimental musical journey varying from generating sound using glasses of water to the use of electronic musical instruments or sometimes, none.

Hands down, I love them all, I am a music freak. Every genre is my taste... The heart-touching melodies, the night mood gazals, the energetic raps, the powerful and inspiring sankrit chants, the mesmerizing sufi kawwalis, acoustic revisit of the old songs, the pop filmy numbers or the peppy rap tracks...... While I am typing this, I am actually listening to one such absolutely cool number from this rainbow of genres! In thirst of unconventional music I recently ended up in finding some wonderful videos (precisely, audios as movies) like meditation music, healing om chanting, lively religious hymns, assorted playlists from the 90s, and also acoustic versions of various songs, some of which compete the original ones well!

Let me define a song in my words- a poetic placement of words woven beautifully, with the perfect harmony of  musical instruments and melodious human voice or a hybrid of such voices. A therapy to touch the listener's heart and soul, it gives wings to the mind, and flight to the imagination.

I wonder how beautifully they do the task of composing the lyrics.. what risk must be involved in composing and trying unconventional lyrics or the kind of beats no other song has ever had? How would they judge, this is it- the right sound, the distinct lyrics and a perfect voice? How tedious it must be to choose a singer appropriate to give life to a song? Are the singers nervous before each recording?

I am blessed to be born in the era when such exhilarating music is being hatched and available without a hitch, over the web. There is a song for every situation. We can connect so flawlessly to the lyrical tunes in every mood! Some or the other song is the tell-tale of one of our life incidences.

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