Belief

I have come to believe in the above statement over the last few years. But I do sometimes feel i lack enough belief in myself and at other times not believe in other's actions/motives and that probably is the hardest lessons to learn for me. Its hard to realize that confidence in myself is as important as faith in others.

Prejudice

Prejudice-Preconcieved misconception- is one of the hardest thing to overcome. Most of the time incomplete knowledge leads to such misconceptions which are far from the truth. Other times, it is due to certain cultural differences which are generally due to difference in upbringing and rest of the time it is just ego working.

Have come across a lot of such preconcieved misconceptions by me during my working hours as a transcriptionist. Was myself a lot surprised at some mistakes(in hearing) I made while hearing the file again and viewing the compared version of that file. Hopefully, identifying such mistakes should help me get better at what I am doing. Also, just few months back had to visit the dentist for cavity filling. Considering the fact that I had visited the dentist only once in my entire life, it was really terrifying to go and sit in the waiting room/chair but in the end the process did not hurt and was quite simple actually, just water spray was used. But I realized the fear in my mind was because of some discussion with some relatives/cousins of their experience at the dentist and hence the misconception. I thought I kept it too late but thankfully the cavities were not that severe.

Below is also an interesting pic

Bicycling

Bicycling/Cycling is one of the things i really felt proud of learning as a kid. It took some time for me to learn (initially with help of some extra side wheels) and at the time it was really hard to fathom how anyone could ever balance a cycle.....it really was something extraordinary to understand and yet such a simple task. Then when i did learn, i used to race a lot with my friends emulating the MotoGP races watched back and constantly commentating about the lead, no of laps,etc. I am really glad i did not get over cycling, n turn to motorcycling-riding a bike, becoz it really helped me to exercise. Used to go to Junior College on my cycle. Everyday i would time myself from home to college, managed to cover the approx 4 km stretch in roughly about 7 minutes, less traffic helped the cause. At that time, was really interested in mountain biking and also going fast for short periods especially when going to college. Later,when i heard about Lance Armstrong and his comeback, Tour de France, the sport of cycling just fascinated me even more. Irrespective of whether Armstrong take performance enhancing drugs or not, what he did was truly greatly inspirational. Got to watch the Tour on TV when vacations for college were on and my interest with cycling grew. Although have not been cycling right now(dont even have a cycle right now), it is something that is really fascinating, one of the first real things i learned to do to go to far away places so as to say. I borrow my friends cycle once in a while for cycling. I think one of my best memories with many of my school friends has been when cruising around on our cycles although it was quite rare.

I did buy a mountain bike back in 2014, and been cycling, still continue to enjoy.

Wrestling-Sports Entertainment

Wrestling mostly WWE (earlier WWF) generally is like a big serial with stories between fights or vice versa. The rivalries are also called feuds in this huge industry which in itself is really a big business. Used to watch RAW is WAR when growing up and would never miss any pay per view. Although WWE was banned in India for few years, when it did resume on some other channel i did watch it for timepass.

Of course when watching it while growing up it was more than timepass it was mostly what my friends at school always talked about. For me the best fueds were HHH and Rock, Bret Hart and Austin, DX and Nation of Domination, Rock and Austin, HBK and Undertaker, Undertaker and Kane, and of course the Austin and Vince McMahon fued was legendary which actually saved the WWE and lead to WCW's fall. Of late, John Cena and Rey Mysterio were good to watch.

Mick Foley in a hardcore match; Jeff Hardy, Shawn Micheals in a ladder match were most interesting to watch. They would fly and do all kinds of stunts. Sometimes Foley used tacks/nails also in a hardcore match, I can only wonder how did he train for something like that. Although they are paid professionals with planned moves and sequences sometimes injuries are real and severe. Recently, been thinking why do these superstars put their bodies on the line. It is their choice of doing what they do and they are trained to do the moves but really is it worth it? They have the courage, stamina, physicality to endure those difficult moves and sequences and keep the right body position when taking a beating. (Have read Mick Foley's book)There should be an age limit for these wrestlers, less than 45.

Have to say that Shawn Michaels and Undertaker match at Wrestlemania 25 (&26) was just so brutal on their bodies (atleast the previous year's match seemed a lot real and less acting) And match where Kane was first seen between Taker and Micheals was great too.

Shawn Micheals is a legend, he retired this year. Stone Cold Steve Austin was my fav superstar back then alongwith DX. Have stopped watching wrestling continuously as before for sometime now, well over some years.

संगीत

I have come to realize the importance of good music in my life over the past few weeks, so listing some of my 'Go-to' songs i listen to when am bored.

Allah ke Bande-Kailash Kher, Elevation-U2, Dont let them get you-The Sheer, She dont want the world-3 Doors Down, Hotel California-The Eagles, Lyin Eyes-The Eagles, Woh Lamhey, Window in the skies-U2, Dimension-Wolfmother, Start All Over-Kula Shaker, Speed of Sound-Coldplay, Snow(Hey Oh)-RHCP, Just Feel Better-Steven Taylor featuring Santana, No rain-Blind Melon, Jai Ho-Slumdog Millionaire, Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol, Rozana-Nishabd, Colourblind-Darius, Dont speak-No Doubt, Anjaane-Strings, Heard 'em say-Kayne West, Dilemma-Nelly & Kelly, Maula-Black&White, Extreme Ways-Moby, Boulevard of Broken Dreams-Green Day, Akheer-Juggy D, Aeroplane-RHCP, Rang de basanti-Rang de basanti, Losing my religion-REM, Friends track-Remembrants and Its My Life-Jon Bon Jovi.

Have to admit not being listening to music as much as i would like to but certainly did listen a lot in college and thereafter while travelling.

Santana is amazing on the guitar and Kenng G on the saxophone. Music assumes a different dimension under artists like these. Also, anything by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy can be listened by me several times and everytime i find somethind new in the piece. Needless to say same goes for AR Rahman.

Mirror Neurons

This is probably one of the most fascinating subjects in recent times in science research in recent times. A few links here for some general overview and here for a slightly advanced explanation related to language evolution.

In short mirror neurons are neurons which are fired when a motor act is performed or observed.
These neurons basically play a functional role in intention understanding, action understanding, imitation, language evolution,etc. Impairment of these neurons causes autism, schizophrenia.

It amazing how much the brain has evolved to create such mirror neuronal networks....that's just so many million, billion years of advancement of a system. In a way it seems like magic to me. It shows that there is some common denominator between any two primates, humans, etc. even if there is a variation in their genes.

As these mirror neuronal systems are the most abundant so as to say in humans, it proves to an extent that we as humans are born to accommodate others actions whatever they may be. But unfortunately some/most actions of others/sometimes self are too much related to the ego rather than the 'Higher Self.'(i use that term often, yet to comprehend its real meaning) So this if we tend to quarrel/fight we are acting against the natural ability of the brain to understand others actions. Some situations cant be avoided though.

I wonder what this topic implies when i am watching live sports/action which i have already experienced.

This topic is beyond explanation as it has so many implications, so i will leave it at that for now. (will post more on it later)