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Sunday, February 5, 2012

A peep into the lives of my Facebook friends - Part 1

Round and round the mulberry bush we go...hush-a bush-a we all... (need an apt conclusion here)
Tired of reading positive quotes doing its rounds on social networking sites. The same lines and pixs are shared, re-shared, liked and rehashed over and over again. Even a dime a dozen falls way too short for the inundation of feel-good vibes circulating on the net.
I wonder how many positive promoters have experienced the shift within them. A click of a button will not undo 'unwanted' behaviour sedimented over the years. This line, I vouch, is mine.
The posi-phony has been on the rise ever since we heard of recession. On the one hand netizens post uplifting thoughts and on the other hand crib about pay cuts, job losses, red tapism, nepotism and politics at workplaces. I'm yet to come across a person who has given up on at least any one of these pet peeves.
In the rush to post and click 'likes' ever wondered there are people thriving, people enjoying excellent health; people earning profits, people going on pleasure trips and enjoying life in the very same places affected by recession.
Happened to bring this to the notice of an acquaintance a few months back, and she said, rather snapped: "They are people who made the right moves at the right time. And when I replied: "Indeed, they made the move within themselves", I got a rather cold stare and a vehement reply: "Oh! You too into spiritualism. Get practical." So I left it at that. (After all, I was meeting her for the first time - one of my friend's cousin).
The very next day, however, we became 'Facebook friends'.
A few weeks later I read a positive quote she shared on FB -'What we think we become - Buddha.'
I would not have remembered her post but for her jab at me when we met first.
Recently I happened to run into her again. I learnt her husband had lost his job in Dubai because his company is curtailing cost. She didn't let him take the transfer option to the firm's headquarters in Manchester because "Europe is reeling under financial crisis. What future we will have there. India is booming; after this school year, we'll return."
I couldn't get her off my thought so I forwarded her a Geoff Thompson's link about beliefs - an offshoot of the Buddha thought she had shared.  
I got a reply: "It's easy to preach. If only good thoughts can make good things happen to us, wouldn't the world be a better place? All these life-coaches are a hoax."
This weekend, she shared yet another positive quote posted by someone - 'He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.'
I ignored it and left her to sort out her problem. Some people only learn by experience - like me.
Meanwhile, an ex-colleague (an ardent Art of Living practitioner and volunteer) caught up with me. "Am having a tough time in office; they transferred me to another section..."
"Why don't you quit, if you are unhappy?" I asked. "I can't. Things aren't going as we expected," she replied.
"Well, then accept that fact. Once you accept a situation and realise you cannot change it, you will stop fretting about it. Isn't that one of the principles taught by Shri Shri Ravi Shankar," I recollected aloud.
"It's easy for you to say. Only if you go through what I'm enduring will you know," she said.
PS: Watch this space...Know several 'positive-posting' friends who make interesting case studies.
Disclaimer: I take this post as an affirmation to reinstate my beliefs.

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