Discover the donkey within u….

Have you ever felt lazy parting with your bed on a Monday morning? Or on a Tuesday morning and on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning? Have you ever stood in the balcony and thought about your life or any situation and wondered about, how things have changed around you and at the same time expressed your inability to control it? Have you ever sat late night for an exam preparation with an intention of burning midnight oil? But on the contrary, ended up happily sleeping beside the lamp and wasting the midnight oil. If the answer is yes, then you are entangled in the vicious circle called the “donkey factor”. There is a donkey within each one of us that raises its ugly head at the moments when we are expected to Achieve, Think, Perform, Motivate, Slog, change and Execute.
I have always wondered if I would have been in a better position if I had regularly studied everyday and had prioritized things in a better fashion. I even feel that sometimes I had shamelessly surrendered myself to the donkey factor and yielded to its ugly tricks that masked my thought process at the moments when I had to act.
There are a few symptoms that I have recorded to diagnose the donkey factor.

• Tendency to run away from a difficult situation hoping that somebody would solve it
• Procrastinating things and reassuring yourselves that you would act tomorrow and you can just relax today.
• Blaming it on others and not taking any ownership of the problems
• Starting off a project in full excitement but later losing the heat in between and taking things for granted
• Wrong assumptions; unnecessary arguments even after knowing that you are wrong.
• Resistance to change

So, how do we overcome the donkey factor? Can we kill the donkey once for all and become a perfect human being? According to me, it is very difficult to kill the donkey as it is inbuilt in our system and all we can do is to MANAGE IT by diverting its attention to something inconsequential and also by developing the habit of positive thinking and self-motivation. Doing too many things at a time also motivates the donkey. It starts jumping and kicking and doesn’t allow you to concentrate. It also builds laziness and a huge resistance to change.
Few things you could do to manage the donkey factor:

• Maintain good health by doing exercise regularly
• Feel confident and be frank in expressing opinions
• Believe in yourselves
• Develop the habit of positive thinking
• Constantly motivate yourself and others
• Make short term achievable goals than a big long term goal
• Smile as much as you can and be happy
• Prioritize and stand up during difficult situations
• TALK to people- that’s the mantra of success
• Seek advice- within limits
• Keep yourselves busy with extracurricular activities
• Listen to Music- a refresher
• Be open to change
• Make good friends

So much for the idiot box…

I still remember the days when we had to buy our first color Television way back in the late 1980’s. I had done enough research as a kid with the brochures of many companies and had diligently worked on the specs (though I could not understand much, I still managed to choose the largest number among the choices…like a 29-inch compared to 25-inch, a 200 watt compared to a 100 watt). I was mentally prepared to buy a “videocon bazooka” with 200 watts PMPO. Whereas, my father was looking at a cost effective television that probably had just a picture tube and with no extra features at all (not even a remote). I put all my convincing abilities to test, explaining my father about why we require a television with a remote and a good sound backup but, on the contrary, he used to counter my arguments with a simple statement that “ what more do we want for two channels DD 1 and DD 2”. At last we settled for a “Philips 21 inch” after many arguments and brainwashing. Finally I was a proud son of the owner of a color television (with a remote control). I fancied myself sitting in front of the TV and watching programs all day and I also remember inviting my friends (most of them did not have TV at home) to watch “Chitrahaar” on Friday evenings. I would sit with the remote all the time and test peoples reaction as I switched channels at the very moment when everybody were engrossed in a melodious song or at the moment when a comedian is expected to crack a joke in the next nanosecond… and… as I switched they would boo with frustration…. it was fun… my father had refused to subscribe for a cable connection because he feared that I would not study and waste time switching between channels…. not that I was a class topper otherwise… but u know what? I still managed to see a few cable channels. If u are wondering how, then as most of us know fixing a cable connection is easy for a teenager…all you need is a blade and a safety pin…yes. I pulled the nearest cable wire that ran across my terrace and then a “little prick did the trick”. My brother, who was my accomplice would position himself in the house and tune different bands to check the clarity of the cable channels. He would run out of the house every 2 minutes and look at the terrace and shout at the top of his voice “ I am not able to see anything” (most of the time he wouldn’t even care whether I listened to what he said) and then I would readjust the pin and shout back…the idiot box as we call now was not all that idiotic then. It was probably the only source of entertainment and it was also a status symbol to own one. A few programs that I remember which were my favourites on DD are Neem ka ped, Kaliganj ki bahu, Malgudi days, Bhyomkesh bakshi, Tar rum too (NCERT), Chitrahaar, Ramayan, Mahabharath, Gul Gulshan Gulfam, Dekh bhai dekh and many more….