19 Aug 2016

#180 Childhood dreams

Childhood dreams

Dream is not what you see in sleep but it is the thing that does not let you sleep.

We all have read this quotation of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam multiple times. This quotation is quite motivating. Dreams have the power to transform a life completely. One should never stop dreaming in any way because the more you dream; the more you get new energy to execute your task.  It is quite simple in a sense that if you have the courage to dream, you have gathered enough courage to convert it into reality.

In my childhood, I was very naughty and regarded as “chatter-box” in my family. I used to narrate my ready- made stories to everyone including my relatives and guests without knowing their meanings in true sense. Some would laugh over my stories while others would feel it to be entertaining but at the end of the stories I would be left with a single question which would not be relevant to the subject and that would annoy me. The question used to be, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” With a very weird expression in face, I would answer, “Pilot”. It was my first ever childish dream. The scenes of wings of aeroplanes penetrating the clouds at the top were very close to my heart. As a child, it was my habit to go to the terrace and observe aeroplanes. As my house was located near the aero drum, on a daily basis I was lucky enough to see nearly 5-6 aeroplanes taking off or landing down. I used to get swayed away completely by that marvelous view.

With my entry to secondary section of school, this dream got vanished. I started asking questions to everything I observed. I was enthusiastic to learn new things and got engaged in new hobbies. Most of my family members are associated with education system. By this I mean that, my uncles and aunts are professors and teachers. So, somehow I developed a strong feeling that I should pursue my career in teaching. Whenever I used to see my uncle preparing notes and rehearsing aloud for the classes, I deeply felt the desire to teach. I was always inspired by him. To make this newly developed dream close to reality, I would gather some of my juniors at my house and teach them some subjects by writing on a black board (which I had purchased for this purpose only). I would pretend as if I was their teacher and they had to follow certain rules and regulations. At the end of each topic, I would make them appear in test and award them marks. The junior scoring highest marks would get some chocolates. I was indulged in pursuing this childish dream for two years only (6th and 7th standard).

Commencement of board exams brought some new changes in my thought process. A new dream was evolving then. It was not like the previous immatured ones. It was very much related to career. A new question had popped up in my brain. Which stream to choose- Science or Medical? I chose science because I had no interest in studying biology. As I chose this stream, I continued to engineering in undergraduate course. I have completed four years of engineering now and pursuing my masters. It would have been impossible for me to pursue this career without the support of my parents, relatives and friends. I am always grateful to the Almighty for showering his mercy upon me. I have been protected a number of times by him. I am lucky that at the tender age, no one tried to mock at my childish dreams. All my family members encouraged me to move forward.

It is very difficult for me to predict the future right now but I have faith on God that he is always there to guide me along the path of  my journey.
“I am blogging about my dreams and the people who helped make them true for the #AdviceThatMattered activity at BlogAdda in association with Stoodnt.”
#AdviceThatMattered 
Sweta Sarangi                                                                                            
19-8-2016


#179 Dreams of my reality



Dreams of my reality

Dream can be defined as a series of thoughts, images that we see when we are in the state of slumber. There’s no one who might have not dreamt while sleeping. It occurs in our subconscious or unconscious state which is largely influenced by our thought process. Dreams are sometimes pleasant. We always wish our pleasant dreams to get converted into reality while we always try to erase any unpleasant dream from our memory.

Dreams also signify our aspirations and hopes in life. Quoting APJ Abdul Kalam You have to dream before your dreams can come true”. The foremost thing in achieving our goal is to dream about attaining that. The rate of success becomes high when we visualise our chance of acquiring that in reality. During my school days, I always dreamt of scoring high in various competitive exams. I was a serious and disciplined student in my school days. I wanted to score the highest marks in Hindi in 10th board in my school as I hailed from a non Hindi speaking state. With a rigorous, meticulous and constant practice, I could achieve what I dreamt of. I could also secure my place among toppers in my school. In this venture, I received an enormous support from my parents, sister, teachers and friends.

Dream is not that which you see while sleeping it is something that does not let you sleep”. These words of Kalam are so apt in context of the ongoing discussion. The passion of attaining goals should be so intense that it does not let one to be in peace before its achievement. I have always been fascinated by my father’s skill of writing since childhood days. He used to write beautiful articles and poems for me. I would always ask him about the time span required for me to master this skill. He always encouraged me to voice my thoughts through words and as a result of it, I’ve been exploring this skill of mine since many years.Writing has become a serious passion for me over the years.I am trying to keep up this habit of writing for which I've been able to win various contests at school and college level.
           
I've always been a dreamer.I still cherish a lot of dreams for my future.Some of my dreams keep motivating me to  work in the direction of  achieving them. I was able to achieve whatever little success I could only because of those dreams I dared to dream and the supporters of those dreams! 


“I am blogging about my dreams and the people who helped make them true for the #AdviceThatMattered activity at BlogAdda in association with Stoodnt.”
 
#AdviceThatMattered

Swati Sarangi
19.08.2016

17 Aug 2016

#178 Mixed Media


#177 Water Colour

Inspired by the cover of Camlin Water Colours

#176 Water Colour


#175 Water Colour


#174 Water Colour


#173 Water Colour


#172 Water colour




#171 Untitled Paint


#170 Untitled Paint


#169 Untitled Paint


#168 Untitled Paint


16 Aug 2016

#167 The tranquility of competitiveness



The tranquillity of competitiveness

Today’s world is a place of competitions. There are several competitions in every field. To prove one self, one has to face a series of competitions. Even toddlers have to appear in entrance exams to get admission in a play schools let alone adults. The concept of competition has improved the quality of outcome in one way but in other way it too has amplified the level of stress associated with it. From one of the internet sources, I was shocked to find that today’s kids carry the stress of an average psychiatric patient of 1950s.In the midst of competitiveness, and fast paced life, we don’t realize about the sacrifices that we are unconsciously making in terms of relations.







This post is about my first competition at school. I was in nursery and it was my first year at school. There was a competition of arranging beads over a given pattern. I and my twin sister both participated in that competition. I sat next to my twin sister and we started arranging beads as soon as the signal for the commencement of the competition was given. During the process, my hands accidentally hit the bowl containing beads and a sea of beads flooded my progress. By then, two students had already completed the task. So, first and second prize winners had already secured their places. Luckily my sister had secured a second place. Now, the competition for third prize was on its way. My sister encouraged me to stay on the race but my level of impatience dominated over my spirit to win. So, I gave up.


It was on Independence day, the prize distribution ceremony was conducted. My sister’s name was announced and we felt so proud of her achievement. She ran to the stage to receive the prize from the chief guest. We clapped with pride. She unwrapped the prize and found a beautiful pencil box. Later on, my father took a lot of pain in searching for similar pencil box that my sister received as prize and he was lucky to find the one he was searching for. In the evening, at my home a similar function was organized. My grandfather became the chief guest and my uncle the commentator. My name was announced and I headed towards my grandfather to receive the prize. The sound of applause made me feel as if it was the same stage of my school.
 

The intention behind all this was simply to develop the concept of equality. The speciality of our upbringing is that my parents have always treated both of us equally. There has never been any incidence of discrimination in treating us. They never supported the concept of favouritism. Children are the most innocent soul and they learn most of the things from the surrounding they live in. The stage of a child can be compared to the moulding stage of a clay pot whose initial shape is decided by craftsman himself. As a result of very careful and wise parenting of my parents, we never suffered from ‘sibling jealousy’. I always feel so blessed for that. I always pray for my sister’s happiness and feel very proud of her achievements. This holds true in case of my sister also. The material connectivity of marks, position etc are not that strong enough to weaken the eternal bond existing between us. ‘Touch wood!’


 



In 70th Independence of India, We all should pledge to be independent of ill thoughts. We should always try to have an independence from internal devils of anger, jealousy, lust, avarice etc .We have attained an independence from the invaders ruling our country but what about those invaders who are still ruling our minds? It’s good to be competitive but amidst the competition, we should not forget to retrospect about our real competitors.

Jai Hind!
Vande Mataram!
Swati Sarangi
15.08.2016