INSPIRATION INSPIRES ME TO INSPIRE

"I must tell you, you really motivated me to start blogging and put my musings on web"

I received this message from a friend of mine, with whom I had lost touch (Hopefully, I will not lose touch again).There was something enchantingly beautiful in it which put me into a state of euphoria. It was to do with the word "motivate" or "inspire". I read the statement again...whoa...My mind was clouded with arrows of questions...How did I really inspire this guy? Can I really inspire? Well, did somebody inspire me too? What is the source of an inspiration? Was I inspired all my life? Etc...

To get to the root, I hit upon some beautiful thoughts, thoughts so beautiful that would inspire you, me and everyone for as long as language exists.

As a kid, I used to laugh a lot at a certain cartoon. It was Mickey Mouse’s exploits with his donkey in search of the unknown land. The donkey was funny. It would do no work and it was hungry. Mickey was smart; He took a carrot and dangled it in front of the donkey with a stick; just a little close in front of its mouth so that it is enticing enough and just a little far from its mouth so that its not reachable. Guess what; the donkey ran, it ran like it never ran before, all in the pursuit of the never reachable carrot. Well, I don’t recollect the name of the donkey, but I can safely assume that the donkey is you, me and everybody else. Yes, you read it right, we are donkeys; most of the time. You want to know why? Read on...

To inspire is to stimulate somebody to do something. To entice is to tempt somebody by offering something attractive. Now, there is a fine line between getting stimulated and getting tempted. The line lies in the way we live our life. When we were kids, mugging and struggling with studies, there was a voice that said,” study well, otherwise I will not be successful"(success being the carrot, enticing);the voice never said,” study well, coz I see myself as the possibility of being a great leader"(this statement makes you dream, it inspires you beyond success). When you did not eat well, the voice said, "Eat well, otherwise I will not be strong"(strength being the carrot, enticing), the voice never said, "Eat well, coz I see myself as a possibility of a superhuman"(this statement inspires you beyond strength). When you were in your college, the voice said, "prepare well, I have to get a good job"(job being the carrot, enticing), the voice never said, "prepare well, I see myself as the possibility of being the next Bill Gates"(this statement inspires you beyond a job). When you are on the job, the voice says, "perform well, I have to get a promotion and a fat pay packet"(promotion and pay packet being the carrots, enticing), the voice never said,” perform well, I see myself as the possibility of being the next CEO of the company"( this statement inspires you beyond promotion and pay packet).......If we think about it, its life dangling the carrot in front of us and we running behind the carrot all through. We will never stop till we die because carrots will never get over.

In art, be it writing or any other form, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire. Inspiration just happens, it is not imposed, it comes from within, within the heart. When I started writing, I was inspired by my bosom buddy, a very special friend, a very good writer. I invented the possibility of being an extra ordinary writer (this is my inspiration). When I started thinking, I was inspired by my father, a very special person. I invented the possibility of being an extra ordinary thinker (this is my inspiration). Now, they were inspired by someone too. It made me realize that inspiration is energy. It just gets transferred to you from multiple sources, from within you, through various ways. And the beauty is , it is transferable, without you losing it. Somebody else gets inspired because you cared to be inspired. Amazingly, inspiration is nature’s way of stimulating each and every human being on planet earth towards an extraordinary goal.

John Quincy said "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader". A true leader inspires. The actors with their pre war dialogues in movies like "300","Brave Heart","Gladiator","Independence day","The Matrix","Rang de Basanti","A Beautiful Mind" inspire. You can feel inspiration. It is as if a box inside the heart is let open and there is something that immediately swarms your entire body, a soothing wave, a rush of adrenalin, that makes you punch your fist in the air and makes you shout at the top of the voice, till your voice cracks " Oh, Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, I can do it too, Wooooh!!!!"

The moral of the story is, search for inspiration and not for carrots. I see myself as the one, who runs inspired, inspiring and scaling new heights, challenging the winds blown by life.

"GENIUS OF THE AND" AND "TYRANNY OF THE OR"

It was weekend, the time when like minded weirdos (friends) discuss (waste time) as to where there is a high probability of having loads of fun. "Let’s go check out the new mall", a weirdo announced. "Let’s catch a movie", one blurted out. "I’ll die if I don’t have an ice-cream", someone screamed. It wasn’t before an uncanny silence prompted me to lift my head from the deep and comfortable recess of a leather sofa, I noticed all eyes were on me. I guessed it was my turn to speak. (Yes, I am the leader of the weirdo gang and apparently, in which damn book is it written that it is mandatory for the leader to be involved in worthless discussions). "Well, let’s go to all the places discussed". I think nobody spoke for 0.0005 seconds, during which I managed to read their faces "Has he gone nuts!!!" "He is crazy!!!" “Another weirdo would make a good leader!!!" . And before anybody could react I said," We will have triple the fun; we have money; we have time to waste; no big deal". Now everyone was eyeing each other, each trying to figure out as to how the other person actually won. As I got up to leave, I was grinning like a smiley; I knew I had used the "Genius of the AND" 

It all began the day before. I was going through my childhood pics and I was reminded of a certain incident that had happened long back. I was offered two chocs by a distant relative and I had to open one of his fists to get my catch. I did open one and to my dismay I did not find the choc. A child that I was, particularly a naughty one, I split open his second fist very much like a crowbar with all my childish energy and realised that the bugger did not have a choc at all. A cheap trick. I had realized then that when a choice is presented to me,I go for all the choices coz I never know what I might get into. So, if any smart relative tried to play the same trick on me, I knew what I had to do.

At some point of time as I grew, the 23 year old me, missed the trick. It was when as a kid,I saw two mouth watering cakes in the sweet shop and I egged my mom to buy me both, I got one and a "Beta , you will get the silver one OR the golden one". It was when I had to decide where my career would go, I got "You can either become a doctor OR an engineer, you can’t be both". It was when I told a dolt, " I am currently in the share market", I got "Dude, you are an electronic engineer".....All my life I had to undergo the "Tyranny of the OR".

It`s funny, most of us think that life details are always in black OR white. This type of thinking is everywhere we look, science, college textbooks, in our speech, in our thought process, in the speeches of our politicians “you’re either with us OR you’re with the enemies”, "Do this OR we’ll harm you ", "We can do Project A OR Project B" ,"Do you want more time OR more money?" ,"You can have a great marriage and average career OR an average marriage and great career", " Win OR lose”,” Yes OR No", "This OR That" ,it’s everywhere,” Tyranny of the OR" .

"Tyranny of the OR” is a rational view that cannot easily accept paradox; that cannot live with two seemingly contradictory forces or ideas at the same time. It pushes people to believe that things must be either A OR B, but not both. It is one of the roots of most of the systems that hurt people and their environment. A clear cut impediment towards progress.

If you look at highly visionary people, companies and scientists, they liberate themselves from this tyranny by invoking the "Genius of the AND". "I can have voice AND video on the same line", "I can study AND sleep at the same time"(Now where did I see it, oh yeah, the dolts in the classroom), " The company can undergo change AND be stable", " The company can have low cost AND high quality", "I can be conservative AND risky in the share market".

When I say "Genius of the AND”, I don’t intend to mean a 'balance'. Balance is 50 50, half half. A visionary person or organization does not intend to strike a balance between the cost and the quality. It seeks to do well in the cost AND it seeks to do well in the quality. When I mention AND here, I am talking about being in the extreme.

As Scott Fitzgerald pointed out very beautifully, "The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

For once when I said, "I’ll go for Aishwarya OR Preeti for the Filmfare" , the dolt reacted the way he would- "Dude, Can both get it?"