Be patient, be happy

Anger has always given me hard times, by poking its dirty long nose unexpectedly at many situations in my life. This is no way means I am a short tempered person who would get angry even for the slightest possible reason that I can find out. Yes, I annoyed at times, but only for those genuine reasons that I can best explain, and one among them is the scornful remarks of those who are keen on digging-out my mistakes, purposefully overlooking the umpteen things they I am good in. But I will soon get-over this and will move on, as I am tired freaking out at such people and really don’t want to be affected by their venomous remarks.

I used to get badly irritated when people deliberately pointed out the negatives in me or my works, purposefully avoiding all the positives. This irritated more when I used to put in hours of hard work and patience in to what I assigned to do, only to find that they all go unnoticed, and only that slightest & accidental error from my end is getting highlighted in front of others. Even though I very well know that no one can be perfect in life and do thing flawlessly, it’s too devastating to hear people reiterate the negatives non-stop, while purposefully forgetting the umpteen positives. I think I can site so many situations of this kind, which has happened in my professional as well as personal life, where I had been so desperate to explain how much dedicated I was and the amount of hard work that I had put-in to make things as perfect as possible. All in vain! Some people around say I do have a bad inferiority complex and that I should pluck it out from my mind very soon, before it ruins me. But I know I am not inferior, and have strong faith in me and my capabilities. All that I can’t stand is people who lack the ability to find positives in me and my works.

Now, I am slowly trying to stop giving those frantic replies, and wait for my turn to calmly explain my end. Yes, with age comes wisdom, and I am learning the wiser ways that are working wonders these days. After the best efforts to explain my part, I deliberately make sure not to worry if the hearer is not satisfied, and make my mind understand that I've done my part in the best possible way.  Fortunately I am having many more stress-free experiences that before dealing with those unhappy ones around who are keen on numbering what went wrong rather than looking at what all went right.

From my experience, I would say it’s always better to stop being frenetic, as I've understood that there is a majority out there who are ‘blessed’ enough to remember negative things more strongly and in more detail. Yes, they do irritate me, but I try not to get annoyed like before! Why bother to mess with them when I know what I am capable of?

Pointing out someone’s negative side is not at all a bad practice, if people are generous enough to balance it with equal amount of positives, thus helping the person boost his ability work more on his capabilities. But if a review is one-sided and biased, containing only a list of negatives, I am sure it would do no good to anyone, not only to me, but also to others, and will in turn take away the enthusiasm and vigor of the hearer.

The ‘DiCaprio crush’

I was reading the entertainment news today and happened to see a picture of the ‘matured looking’ Leonardo De Caprio, the teenage crush of many of my college mates. Call it my ignorance about movies and actors, but, the man who once had the looks of a classic ‘chocolate hero’ was looking tad different in the picture and it called to mind a few interesting memories from my college days and about my girl pals who swooned over him.

De Caprio and Titanic were the hottest and most talked topics in our college, and all my friends had a kind of hysterical crush on him, a crush on someone they've never met in life! For them, he was the most handsome on earth and Titanic was the perfect portrayal of eternal love. For me, Leonardo De Caprio was always on the list of those immature looking heroes who can never ever go beyond the edge of typical romantic films. Every one, except me, wanted to watch James Cameron's cinematic magnum opus, but it was that time of our academic year when we had classes back to back the whole day and couldn't spare even one hour. I really had no interest in the movie and all my friends were almost taken to surprise when I said this. I had read quite a bit about the ship and some of the stories related to it, and felt that the movie would be too much predictable to kill my spirits, and above all was the actor who was no way matching with my concepts of ‘handsome’. Seeing my cold reactions, my friends called me senseless and unromantic, but as always I used to turn a deaf ear to their unending De Caprio stories that used to take me to the edge of boredom. But even after trying so hard, the movie plan didn't work out due to the tight schedules of classes and exams, which resulted in a kind of mass gloominess among all my friends, especially on knowing that the movie would soon go from the nearest cinema hall. Their sadness was indefinable, but I was happy that I was finally saved from watching a movie with a story line that’s quite straight and predictable, containing absolutely no thrill and fun. To be frank, I like thrillers, but romantic movies are not generally my cup of tea. But the story took a different turn when the college management organized charity programme where they were planning to show the movie. I just couldn't take-in the fact that my teachers wanted to make me watch a movie that I would never think of watching, even if I am bored to death.

It was the day of the charity programme and the movie was planned for the afternoon session. I knew I would not be able to ‘save’ myself from my pals, and hence made up my mind to sacrifice my precious time for something that I was hardly interested in. When all my friends almost firmly fixed their eyes on the screen watching the ‘saga’ of true love, I couldn't help but hilariously laugh inside seeing their reactions and facial expressions. Some of them smiled, some blushed, some whispered to their friends, and some even cried their hearts off, and I was the only one in the hall giggling uncontrollably looking at all these amusing reactions.

I was, and I still am, not at all a huge movie buff or a loyal fan of those high-profile movie stars and socialites who keep filling in the Page 3 columns with spicy day today stories. Moreover, let it not be a secret that I have never succumbed to delusions and celebrity crushes like most of my pals, and have always felt those kinds of things don’t count much in life. Such crushes have almost never happened to me yet, as movies and stars would often leave the door steps of my mind the moment I stop watching them.