4 Unusual Life Lessons in My Usual 16 Years

4 Unusual Lessons in My Sixteen Years

Today I celebrate 16 successful years in my life. None of them has been extremely unusual (though some have been quite eventful). Most of them were spent in the hands of the Indian education system and the others taking a break. In this post, I write 4 unusual life lessons I learnt (or at least got to know) in my usual 16 years.

1. Moti Soap
                                                  A lot of my thinking time is spent in the bathroom. Actually, most of the thinking time I give myself is while I am in the bathroom (yeah that is better). Of course, I am not quite focused sometimes so I drop the bar of soap (like my pens, my expectations and grades). One thing I have noticed is that the usual soaps like Lifebuoy and Pears and even Patanjali get a big dent in them when they are dropped. But when the Moti soap sphere dropped, it did not get a dent.
                                                  Haters would raise the question - How big was the bar, how hard do you drop it, blah blah blah. But they are haters (and apparently a small part of my brain). The fact is that my brain veered on to the soap's advertisements. The Pears and Patanjali bombard their adverts on TV and on billboards all year, but the soaps are frauds. We seldom stick to one brand and just choose any normal soap at random. The opposite can be said for the Moti brand of soap. They put their adverts only about a week before Diwali and it is the same boring one over and over again. Still, we buy it, every Diwali! Isn't that a little paradoxical? Well, that is what I learnt from it. I think that to be successful in life, you don't need to bend truth your way, but earn a place in people's minds such that they will remember you forever.


2. The Tic-Tac jar
                                                I call it the tic-tac jar because 'box' doesn't seem right and Grammarly.com doesn't recommend words until you buy it. So - jar.
                                                This is another classic example of how much time I spend doing literally nothing in the shower every day. There is an empty tic-tac jar on my bathroom shelf with the lid ripped off. Once, I filled it with water up to the brim. Then I closed the opening with my thumb and turned it upside down. It took me a little time to get it perfect, but I managed to hold it exactly upside down with none of the water spilling outside my thumb. When I do so and the jar is filled fully with water, it looks like there is no water inside it - it looks totally transparent. Then, when I let a little of the water escape, an air bubble forms inside t and makes me realise that it is full of water.  Some of you may find it stupid, but that is exactly the point of this post.
                                                 Somehow, I could relate this to the world. Our world is an illusion. It looks like something but is exactly the opposite. One of the things that separate the commoners form the visionaries or in general, the successful people is that small release of water. That is what makes you realise that the world is not what you thought of. It is something totally different.

3. The Mobile Phone - Electronic Entertainment
                               This is probably applicable to any type of entertainment that runs directly on electricity. Let me keep it short.
                                                Mobiles, tablets and TV are quick entertainment, not to mention computers and gaming consoles. These are extremely useful to gain information, communicate or have a little fun. Everyone knows its pros and cons (courtesy the unavailability of subjects for essays and letter to the editors). But I tried to connect it with something different.
                                                The one thing that we never do a lot or in incessant quantities is something that we utterly love to do. Sometimes it's eating, travelling or probably even reading a book. But we shouldn't do an excess of it too. Anything, literally anything is harmful when done in excess. Despite the health issues of it, I have seen people lose control of themselves over excess of silly things. So - in short - be in a limit!

4. The Share Button
                                This is probably the most common of them and something that you might have heard from a lot of people. The fact is that even YouTube realised it, not so far ago. They simply added a share button. The introduction of the internet is the most important event in the history of communication. It has made sharing information with each other extremely easy, convenient, cheap and safe. It helps. Whatever has happened in my life, I have been sharing with someone - my mom, my best friend, my teacher anyone, someone. It is probably the most important lesson that I have learnt in my life, and I am fortunate that I learnt it so early.


(P.S. That is exactly what I am doing today.)
                     
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                        Miheer