Sometimes we go for the big dreams in life, but what we leave behind are the little things that gave us the little joys. We hardly have control - can't keep them all.

Also, probably the amount you've lost defines the magintude of the success you need to balance it out.

Quoting Superfreakonomics

Deliberate practise has three key components: setting specific goals; obtaining immediate feedback; and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
- Superfreakonomics

Awargi

Humlog to ukta gaye, apni sunao awargi

From the Merchant of Venice

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Nook

I seem to be having a good feeling for the Nook, better than the other e-readers. Kindle did not make me want it. Nook sort of does. Love technology. Imagine where it's taking us :)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/

Still...

..have a fascination for this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_66590_13452210_pe_ht7/?ASIN=B001XOZPEI

Absolutely Beautiful..

There's a gap somewhere, a void. I'd thought a coffee would fill it. But it doesn't

Some times I feel like the kid in the movie Taare Zameen Par.
The difference is I alone play all the different charachters of the movie.

Main kya jiya
Mujhko jeevan ne jiya
Boond boond kar piya
Pi kar path par
Khali sa chod diya

Totally loved this album as a kid

Dairy Milk

A thought is what makes life beautiful, makes you happy. A thought is what upsets you. Everything in the world is only representative of that thought.

From Stumbling on Happiness:
"You've probably noticed that with the exception of almost no one, nobody picks friends and lovers by random sampling....
...we are surrounded by people who like us, and people who are like us. It isn't surprising, then, that when we turn to the people we know for advice and opinions, they tend to confirm our favoured conclusions - either because they share them or because they don't want to hurt our feelings by telling us otherwise."

So true. Sometimes if friends do not confirm the favoured conslusions, they don't remain favoured anymore.

Ol' Fav..

Moon River

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
Waiting 'round the bend,
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

NJ Transit..

...the loveliest train I've seen till date. Some stations in NJ are old too but they are soooo pretty, unlike Chicago. I can spend my entire life in this train with my books and music. Oops and the engine broke down now and we're stranded, don't know for how long. This is even more exciting!! I soooo love it!!!

Or maybe as Dan Gilbert says I love it only because this is the first time.

Acctualllyyy, he doesn't say many things that are new. But then he does get you thinking about all that we usually don't care to think about. Whatever.. I love his book!!

Vienna - Billy Joel

What if time was just an illusion?

Random Thoughts..

Biases - they are so minutely ingrained in us. I totally hate them!!

I like the couch in my house.. its the hugest couch I've ever seen and very comfortable.

New York is so fast, it's crazy and I love it. No one cares, people are simply racing.

It was the day before yesterday I think.. I rushed into the train trying to reach for a seat and a guy got there a split of a second before me. He asked me to go ahead - and the greed of being seated for those twenty minutes after a tiring day - I did. And then... I felt bad.

Bagel and cheese with vegetables again.. with a small coffee!!

El Erian has been on my now reading list for ages. But now that I've read the comments on Amazon at least I don't blame myself anymore.

God(?) made interesting things to keep us happy and entertained. And then He gave us a strangely wired mind that undervalues everything interesting and deeply overvalues problems and unmet expectations.

I have no clue what life's going to teach now. But I do know that there's a lot more to learn.

http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2009/05/mbas-and-ethics.html
Interesting blog post.

My fav part being..
"Watch out for those who are holier than thou... My experience is that the people who indulge in breast beating about honor, ethics and honesty are often the least dependable in the face of a ethical challenge."

This is so true.

Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

I bought the two smallest possible pieces of art at the fest right outside my building. The Art Fest was the best thing I've seen in Chicago so far. So much variety and such amazing work. I loved it.
I now want to see how it'd feel to hold a paint brush after so many years.

Yesterday I came across something I'd written as a child, it said - "I am most disaapointed when I upset someone else." I still feel the same. Sadly, I have lesser control now.

Play is more than fun..

Want to read..

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my favorite reads. It's engaging, magical, insightful and philosophical. Mystical realism is what they call it. It portrays life in its entirety, almost entirety, at least to the extent that I know. I am sure Love in the Times of Cholera would be a very different book but again a book by Marques cannot be anything less than meaningful.

A few rooms away, they are having the New Venture Challenge. Yes, I am in business school. Business, finance, investments, politics and policies are interesting but philosophy is way too ahead. Probably this is what comes naturally to me. But business and business school can push one to grow in a different yet confluent way.

Passion
Hatred
Envy
Frustration
Desperation
Anger
Fear
Love
Loneliness
Sadness
Pleasure
Failure
Indifference

Ol' Fav..

Chhodo Na Mujhe -

How deep must be the influence of society on its people's lives that it manages to dampen the strongest bonds of entire lifetimes. How weak can it make one who wishes to keep them all happy.

I absolutely love this blog. Looking at it after ages today makes me wonder...........

It's sad to have crossed a hurdle and then go back to where you started only because you do not have the courage to stand alone on the other side.

I hate plans that resist change but I also hate being over-influenced.