Even when everything is going great, sometimes, haven’t you felt there is something missing? Like the time when someone forgot to add a tinge of salt to that otherwise yummy chicken leg?

I have a habit of developing tools that help myself out of situations in life that I might have to face again. Like this one for the times when I don’t know what to do. And this one when I feel really really down.

Here are three videos that I stumbled upon, over time that gives me that nudge, when I toss over and hit a wall, that tells me to keep pushing and someday soon the wall will come down. All three of them gives me goosebumps every single time, and I am right back on track!

“Success has been and continued to be defined as getting up one more time than you have been knocked down”

*Goosebumps*

The Salt That Makes Chicken Tastes Better! is a post from: The Kuttappi

Okay, Biting nails is not a very good bad habit, wait, maybe that’s why they call it a bad habit. Anyways, since high school I had this not-so-good habit and my nails looked so small and terrible.

But somehow I never cared about it so much, and whenever someone say that my nails are too small, I would gladly reply with, “Yeah! I bite them all”.

But things changed when I became a CEO and started signing papers. This stuck me once when I was at the bank and was signing a bunch of papers for the account opening. You know, my start-up was registered as a Private Limited, which on itself is a big deal (simply for the matter that it costs anywhere between 20,000 INR and 30,000 just for the registration). And there at the bank, esp. with someone watching over my signatures,  I looked very immature. Yeah! I didn’t have the moustache that I have now to look mature

And that was about the time when I was drawn the the “Fingers Looking Good” nails So I told her one day that I am going to quit biting nails. And I did, haven’t bitten a single nail ever since.

So How Did I Do It?

1. I made a commitment, I told someone that I am going to do it. It’s one of my ways of committing to myself. My ego is big enough to force me to keep my word, even though breaking that word wouldn’t mean much.
2. I cut my nails really really really short, so that I won’t have anything to bite even if I had to. Now you can’t beat that.
3. I always carried my nail cutter in my bag ever since and whenever I feel like biting a nail, I cut the nail again then and there, really short. That works.

Eventually, over time, I lost that instinct to bite my nails. I still do carry a cute nail cutter (which she gifted me) in my bag all the time. My nails have grown in size a bit, but there is still a long way to go.

If you still bite nails, shame on you.

How I Quit Biting Nails. And So You Can Too! is a post from: The Kuttappi

I am scared of many things. I am scared of heights for instance. And I follow by the philosophy, If you are scared of something, don’t run away from it, Face it. And it works every time.

I bet you know the obvious reason for my trip to Indonesia, but the idea of a foreign travel was in my mind since the Feb of 2010 when a friend of mine went to Malaysia for a week’s visit and he said its not that expensive. I was afraid of foreign travel.

• Foreign travels are expensive.
• You have to do an air travel, and airports have security checks. I have heard of airport security holding back people for no reason. (In fact, a friend of my dad was held at some airport in the middle east for over a week).
• I never actually completed the passport application (I have some confusing with my address, different house names); wrong passport details would end me up in trouble.

Things look different now.

The trip involved some serious money. It even started before the trip, I literally had to start from zero. Purchase of clothes, travel accessories, suit case. And I pulled it off quite well, bought the things I always wanted, like the Samsonite Cosmolite Suitcase and 50mm Canon lens. I paid for the trip right out of my pocket and that makes me feel real good about it. It was the first time I work on a fixed target (both in terms of money and time) on this scale.

Foreign travel is expensive, but not as expensive as I thought. Most Asian countries are pretty much the same as Indian cities in terms of living expenses or so am I told.

Air Travel is no big deal. Just make sure that you are not carrying anything illegal (and that includes flowers, seeds, fruits etc, which I didn’t know at that time so I took a flower from here all the way to Jakarta ) and there is nothing to worry about. Keep your eyes open, talk to strangers, don’t trust them though. Keep your money safe.

There was an incident. When I was back in Mumbai after the journey, customs officers asked me too many questions about my baggage. My dad later told me that it could be because of the expensive looking suitcase, and I was dressed in a Kurta and I might have looked suspicious.

The passport application had to be done. And I did it. When I landed in Jakarta, the airport security guy was looking at the picture in my passport and my face multiple times, and it gave me a scare. But that was it.

All these fears are now gone. The trip was a great success on a personal level, I tell myself out of pride, “Dude, you went to Indonesia by yourself, you are awesome!”. And I can do it again. It’s one of the things that blogging taught me, If you can do it once, you can do it again and again.

Enjoy your weekend!

p.s: It was the first time I throw money on myself and I believe it has improved my quality of life, made me more demanding, which is good in a way. The experience was great, it has given me a different perspective of life.

What The Indonesian Trip Did To My Untold Fears is a post from: The Kuttappi

You could be Bill Gates, or you could be the President of America, accept it, there are things that you cannot change, things that you have no say in, many things.

Recently, I had been forced to accept some hard realities. As one of my best buddies say, I am a dangerously optimistic person. I could close my eyes to realities even when everything is falling apart. So this was new to me. Guess what? I survived.

I got frustrated, I got worried, but all over the things that I had no control over, things that I couldn’t make a difference in. And when it started getting over me and started getting into my commitments are responsibilities I found this. It has worked for me and it could work for you too.

• Ask yourself what is the worst that could happen and make a note of it. Most of the times we worry for nothing. When you know what is the worst, you know what to worry about at least.
• Ask what would you do if the worst could happen and make a note of it. This is you preparing yourself for the storm.
• Ask what you should be doing right now. Make a list of things you have to do. This is you being realistic.
• Ask yourself what is the best thing to do right now. It should be one from the list you prepared in the last step.
• Get yourself busy with the best thing to do. Keeping yourself busy with people and things will make you feel better. At least while you are at it.
• Do not think too much, just think of the next step.

This has worked for me quite well. But there were flashes of the frustration coming back, but hey.. then there is nothing much you can do about it.

“Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to stand back up” ~ The Karate Kid

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!” ~ The Count of Monte Cristo

This is for me. For those moments when I dont know what to do is a post from: The Kuttappi

“Are you Happy?”. This is ‘the question’ that I ask myself when I am faced with a choice. And when the answer is No, I know something is wrong and its time to change something.

Story Time!

My Life after college started with me being associated with Smiley Card, a privilege Lifestyle card that would give you great deals at selected outlets. There were good times and bad times. Good times are always happy times, but when the bad times came, this question haunted me. I was still getting YES as the answer and that made me stick to it.

But when the answer started being No after a while and that too for a long time, I decided to end my term there. I was done. I am done.

Interestingly, the day I decided to quit, I got a call from an acquaintance to partner him in a venture and to be one of the directors of a company that he had in mind. The profile demanded my experience with Smiley and when I think about it, it was perfect. It felt like connecting-the-dots. I had nothing else in mind at that time. I asked myself if I would be happy there and I instantly knew that I wouldn’t be.

Right now, I have found something that I love doing (will share the details later). As of now am with the people that make me happy, and doing what I love doing and the answer to “Are you Happy” is “Hell-F###ing-Yes”

Police Check en route to Ooty. WTH!

I think what people should care about is that if they are happy today and not worry about what it is going to be. If you are not happy today, change something and do something that will make you happy. Else its not a life worth living!

Dood. Do The Right Thing! is a post from: The Kuttappi

Some time back, I used to have an online friend who would always Ask, “Whats New”. Its not a very big deal, but when you think of it, isn’t it much better than asking “How are you?”

All I can think of when someone ask me How I am is, the stereotyped “Fine“, or “Good“, which is most often a lie or “I have been better“, If I don’t want to spoil the mood. When I am brutally honest I would say, “F##ked Up“. None of these makes much sense.

What’s new, one the other hand, makes me think of exactly whats new in my life. Isn’t that what you really wanna know when you ask someone how they are?

When asked with this question, you could reply with something you just bought, or some tour that you went on, or anything thats new in your life and maybe start a conversation on that.

Try it!

p.s: When I was thinking of new stuffs while searching for an image, all I could come up was new shoes. I got a thing for shoes.

Whats New? is a post from: The Kuttappi

I have been hearing good things about Art of Living for a long time. But I got the privilege to attend one, only last week. When I got the chance, I took it.

Well, I have to admit this: It was one of the best decisions I have taken in the recent past. It was AWESOME! Thanks to my friend Ravi for introducing me!

Art of Living is all about Personal Development. The development of the Mind, Body and the Spirit. There are many courses catering different age groups of people, I took one called the YES+. Yes+ is for the age group of 18 to 30. Deals with the solutions of the challenges youth has to handle during his life.

We had yoga, knowledge, exercises, and lots and lots of fun! I would heavily recommend this course to anyone who wish to do something with their life.

I took the course at the Art of Living centre near Rama Verma Club (Near TDM Hall), Cochin. Batches start on Tuesdays (Morning Batch: 6 am to 8:30 am and Evening Batch: 6 pm to 8:30 pm) and end on Sunday. Cost is just Rs. 800/-

Contact: Aswin – +91 8089160844 or Pramod – +91 7736687606

p.s: “Pain is Inevitable, but Suffering is Optional” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

YES+ : The Art of Living for the Youth! is a post from: The Kuttappi

I saw the movie “The Social Network“, the story of Facebook. As with all similar movies, they make it look so simple. Before you know it, the company is world famous. I like the way the movie is made with the focus not on the company itself, but on the drama behind its making.

Well, thats not the point of this post. I would like to keep this post as a marker.

I was discussing about the movie with a couple of my friends. And I said, how cool it would be to reach 500 million people. To counter that he said, working in Facebook is super awesome. I was seeing myself as owning Facebook. I just wanna see where we both are after say, 10 years. Nice game

Go watch The Social Network.

What I See Is What I Get? is a post from: The Kuttappi

Over the past few weeks, I got the opportunity to interact with a lot of people. Those interactions revealed to me some interesting facts.

• Everyone wants to get rich, but very few are ready to put in the effort. Not every one becomes a millionaire by winning a lottery. Exceptional results come when you put in exceptional efforts.
• Very few people have an idea on what they want to do with their life. People just follow the trend. They are stuck in the RAT Race.
• Most people are afraid of taking Risks. I know you know that. But many of them are even afraid of the idea of taking a risk.
• Everyone have a set of common Dreams like a big house, a car and the like. World Travel is one among them.
• There are other people who have big dreams, but for some reason, they are not willing to chase their dreams. I am not sure if they are burning candles and praying every night for a miracle to happen. I don’t think they would ever wake up with a million dollar bill under their pillow.
• Not everyone is self motivated. People go down very easily.

Now I know why I don’t find many millionaires around. People who have made it BIG have put in BIG efforts and they have RISKed it all. Something drove them all the time and I believe it was their Dream that kept them motivated and took them places.

The Secret to Being a Millionaire is a post from: The Kuttappi

When I was in school I read this book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and got to realize that I was part of a system and was running the Rat Race.

The idea is simple, a kid is born into a system. The kid goes to school, then college, then finds a job, then gets married and have a couple of kids and those kids repeat the same. The cycle never ends.

To be honest, the Rat Race is easy, its something what others expect you to do and obviously you live a common life. The framework is set for you, you just have to go along the flow.

Last day, I was at cochin with my friend @Zeqox and I heard him saying to a friend of mine (@Rajeshtaracad) that I was now off the framework, out of my comfort zone. Thats when I realized that I was off the rat race, and that moment just felt awesome.

Now it doesn’t matter what I do; honestly I am not 100% sure of anything right now, but I am loving it. There is so much to learn, so much to see and so many places to go. I am so glad I have a great bunch of friends to turn on to and to support me when I am in doubt.

I believe the opportunity I have to choose my way at my will is not something everyone have. I feel so blessed for the awesome opportunity

Finally I feel that I am off the RAT-RACE is a post from: The Kuttappi