Someone is Happy and someone Sad !

 

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Someone is Sad after a sub-four hour marathon, because they didn't hit their personal best.

Someone is Happy just to make it to five kilometers in an hour, without a break.

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Someone is Sad that they got two percent less increment than they expected.

Someone is Praying hard to get their first job offer.

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[The sensitive, yet powerful, contrasts]

Someone is not happy because they have two daughters and no son.

Someone is Trying hard for years to get a baby.

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Someone is Sad that they took only two, and not three, abroad vacations this year.

Someone is Happy just to be home once a year for Diwali, thanks to work and cost barriers.

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Someone is Sad since they cut fewer cakes this year on their birthday.

Someone is Blushing after their crush wished them Happy Birthday.

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Someone is not so happy with only five hundred stranger followers.

Someone feels Blessed to have all near and dear ones just a phone call away.

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Someone is Sad that their melody wasn't too melodious.

Someone is Happy since something Happened over coffee.

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Someone is too scared to take the next small step towards their Goal.

Someone is full of Belief that they will crush whatever obstacles they face.

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A picture is worth a thousand words - ThrowBack

 

I won’t say I stumbled on this image — I was intentionally hunting for it in my photo gallery.

I wanted this exact pic because I planned to talk about clipless cycling shoes — the ones with cleats that lock into specific pedals (shown below). The idea was to highlight how many times I fell while learning to use them. With these pedals, when yu brake, you better remember to unclip first, or else — boom — yu meet the ground.

My plan was to connect it to a life lesson: In learning, falling isn’t optional — sometimes it’s necessary.

If anyone ever wants to learn skating, my first advice will always be: Learn how to fall first.
Once the fear of falling goes, your confidence rises.

Clipless Shoes

Anywho — when I saw this pic, it took me down memory lane and so many aspects have been captured here. In no particular order — yes, the jersey I’m wearing is specifically for running, and when this was taken, I had just started cycling again. And yeah — I love loose sleeveless T-shirts during workouts.

In one of my earlier posts, I used this pic to show the shorts — this was my fav running short. I had a pair of them, and I still remember going to CST (Mumbai market) with dad to buy it. It has a distinct cut (near the white stripes) and I am particular about some of these small nuances. Watching Kenyan and Ethiopian runners on TV wearing similar-style shorts only made me want one even more.

The helmet — of course, a Decathlon product. And yes — this helmet did save me a couple of times 😅

Then the watch — well, I love watches and used to even wear one while going inside Goa beaches. For running and training, my main preference used to be a simple stopwatch — nothing fancy. This one was a Sonata, and I used it for years, including both my full marathons. Now I have a slight upgrade — GPS and heart-rate monitor.

Then — then — ankle weights.
Man, this takes me straight back to Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, where Sanju (Aamir Khan) trained with ankle weights while cycling. Then later in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Farhan Akhtar was shown skipping with heavy ankle weights — and I followed that too. To this day, I love skipping with ankle weights — it works like magic for me. 🙂

This is almost a decade-old pic, and it reminds me of everything I explored, how much I continue to explore even now, and also what all I’ve stopped doing.

Closing this for now!

Would love to hear your side someday — and deep-dive into your photo gallery too. 🙂

Take a Knee

Life doesn’t always feel like a steady journey — many times, it feels like a battlefield. Deadlines pile up, a critical bug suddenly appears, an escalation email lands in your inbox, the calendar is packed with back-to-back meetings, and before yu even process what’s happening, everything feels urgent. The pressure builds, thoughts scatter, emotions start spiraling, and yu feel yourself inching toward that breaking point. And in those moments, the natural instinct is to push harder — to type faster, react instantly, scramble, multitask, and somehow fight the chaos by becoming even more chaotic inside.

But if you’ve followed me for a while, yu know I resonate deeply with David Goggins’ mindset. One of his ideas that stayed with me — especially during tough phases — is the simple but powerful concept of “Take a Knee.” In the military, when bullets are flying and everything is unpredictable, soldiers don’t just rush blindly forward. They take a knee — not to quit, not to escape — but to pause, breathe, reassess the situation, understand where they stand, and decide the next move with clarity instead of panic.

We don’t live on battlefields, but we face our own kind of fire. Sometimes it’s in our careers: deadlines closing in, expectations rising, tasks multiplying faster than we can tick them off. One bug leads to another, testing fails, production goes down, and then that escalation email arrives — the one that throws your heartbeat off rhythm. In those moments, the brain says, “Move faster. Fix everything right now.” But that’s usually when the exact opposite is needed.

That’s when taking a knee becomes crucial.

Taking a knee means stepping back mentally — even if physically you’re still at your desk. It means acknowledging the chaos, but not letting it hijack your response. It’s pausing just long enough to regain control of your mind, reorder priorities, and remind yourself: “I don’t need to solve everything at once. I just need to choose the right next step.”

This applies beyond work, too — in running, when yu hit a wall; in relationships, when miscommunication spirals; in life, when things don’t make sense anymore. We’re conditioned to keep grinding, keep reacting, keep moving — as if slowing down is a sign of weakness. But taking a knee isn’t quitting. It’s refusing to let panic make decisions for you.

Sometimes strength isn’t about pushing harder — it’s about pausing long enough to reset your strategy, regain your breath, and rise with clarity.

So the next time life feels overwhelming — whether it’s a half marathon, a career deadline, or an emotional storm — remember this:

Yu don’t have to sprint through chaos.

Take a knee.
Breathe.
Re-center yourself.
Then get up — and move forward with intention.

Pause and Reflect — Before It’s Too Late

We’ve all heard that line in movies — a doctor looks up, sighs, and says,

“You have six more months to live.” -- And then, the whole movie unfolds around how everything changes — priorities, relationships, and even the meaning of life itself.

In real life, this happens too. People diagnosed with terminal illnesses — cancer or other life-threatening diseases — are often told how long they have left.
But some outlive that timeline. Some make peace with it.
And many live more fully in those months than they ever did in years before.

Now here’s the question:
What about — the “healthy” ones?
The ones not diagnosed with anything fatal (thankfully).
Do we ever pause to realise that we too have a fixed timeline — we just don’t know how long it is?

We live as if our story will go on forever.
But the truth is — it can end tomorrow.
Or in 30 years. Or 40.
And most of us only start truly living when it’s too late — when the body weakens, the mind slows, and regrets pile up quietly in our hearts.

Ask yourself —
Are you prioritizing what really matters to you?
Have you truly listened to your heart lately?

Take a moment — close your eyes — and imagine your 80-year-old self.
What would they thank you for?
And what would they regret that you never did?

This isn’t my idea, actually.
Jay Shetty once shared a meditation where you visualise your younger self and your older self — the child you once were and the elder you’ll someday be.
You ask both —
“What are you proud of?”
And,
“What breaks your heart that I stopped doing?”

It’s a simple but powerful exercise — because in those silent answers lies the truth of what you really want from life.

So maybe today, instead of waiting for someone to say “You have 6 months to live,”
let’s start living as if we do.