Evolution and Hairfall

Disclaimer 1: The phenomenon outlined here may or may not be based on credible science.. Feel free to accept or reject it based on the position of your hairline..
Disclaimer 2: Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing.

Those of you who have had the good fortune of seeing me; or more importantly - my shining scalp - in the near past know what has prompted the upcoming revelations...

Nature is without doubt a force greater than any than man can contemplate.. Evolution has taken single celled blobs of protoplasmic jelly and created the homo sapien... Of course, the breed is not uniformly evolved.. We have all encountered numerous homo sapiens less evolved than us.. Some of us have had the sense to meet more evolved members of the species too!

Is evolution subjective? I wish I had wings... Humans are considered higher up in the evolutionary ladder.. Why were the wings clipped off from the birds? Somewhere, few million years ago, creatures branched off into land/ sea/ air categories and evolved accordingly I guess... Sad na? Some of you are probably as sad about the remoteness of the chance of your grandchildren growing gills and surviving underwater... But come on.. Humans with wings would have been really cool!!!

What about non-physiological evolution? Physiological evolution happens in a very functional manner... If I try everyday to jump higher and higher, flap an imaginary set of wings, train my children to do the same, they train their children to do the same and so on.., maybe after a few lakh generations, my lineage will sprout functional wings!! Very nice description of evolution...

Don't mind the expletive usage.. 

Non-physiological evolution is more subjective.. The goal, or direction of evolution is not defined very clearly.. Which is why we have so many viewpoints, languages, religions, branches of science, sport, art & craft, countries etc... Makes life fun.. If we were all evolving uni-directionally, how boring would existence be! 

Point of this discussion is, no matter what the form of evolution, it is definitely a sign of a step forward.. Scientists claim the vermiform appendix will cease to exist in humans in some thousand generations' time... Evolution?! Yeah... :D

During the stone age, when humans were basically monkeys with straighter backs and less body hair, we lived out in the open, well exposed to the elements of nature... We needed that body hair!!! See, monkeys still have them.. They don't build houses with air-conditioning units etc... We don't.. Hence, unless you are related to Anil Kapoor, you have much lesser body hair than the common baboon... Evolution?! Yes!! Congrats... :D

Similarly, the hair on the head... Have you seen Robin Sharma's shining scalp? Now that is a sign of a truly evolved soul... Humans are slowly progressing towards this ideal, and hence, evolved souls experience the "problem" of hairfall... Blame society and its ignorance of true progress for the existence of Dr. Batra! The more your hairline has receded, the more evolved you are! Poor female homo sapiens have a longer way to go.. I hear of the existence of shampoos to stop hair breakage... Hair breakage is not a problem.. It is just an extra step that long-haired, yet evolved being must go through, before they start balding... So chill.. Society shall one day realize that bald is beautiful and treat us with the respect we deserve, for we are the next stage in human evolution! Not Professor X and his mutants.. It is us.. Silent bearers of universal truths, contained in our exposed scalps... 

Cheers!

Lunch with God!!!

Hi all :D
I got this beautiful story as a forward and just had to share it here... We don't realize the importance of the little things in life. They make life worth living and true joy can be found in these little things :) The story goes:

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was going to be a long journey, so he packed few packets of wafers and a few bottles of juice and set out. When he had gone few blocks away, he met an elderly man. The man was sitting on a bench in a park, feeding some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his backpack to have a drink, when he noticed that the man appeared a bit hungry. So he offered him a wafer. The man accepted it gratefully and smiled at the boy. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again. So he offered him some juice. Again the man smiled at him. The little boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating, drinking and smiling, but never said a word. Soon it become late and the boy realized he had to get home. So he packed his stuff and got up to leave. But before he could go many steps away, he turned, ran back to the man and gave him a hug... The man gave him his biggest smile ever. Later, when his mother opened the door to his bell, she was surprised by the look of joy on his face and asked him, "What have you been doing to make you so happy?". He replied, " I had lunch with God today!". Before his mother could respond, he added "You know, God has the most beautiful smile ever!".

Meanwhile, the elderly man, also radiant with joy entered his house. His surprised son asked him, "Dad what did you do today that made you so happy?". The man replied, "I had wafers and juice with God today!" Before his son could respond, he added "You know God is much younger than I expected!"

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch,

a smile,

a kind word,

a listening ear,

an honest compliment,

or the smallest act of caring,

all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

People come into our lives for a reason,

a season,

or a lifetime.

Faith... ??

Faith has always been a topic of conflict. Faith, by definition means accepting something without knowing all the facts about it. Its about belief & trust. We all have faith at various levels... Faith on our parents, friends, politicians (yeah right... :P ), doctor (if not, better change your doctor.. :P ), God (unless you're an atheist.. ), the architect and masons who built the building you're in right now (if not, RUN!!! ) etc... etc...
The most conflicting aspect of faith is faith in God or the unseen power. I for one am not an atheist & believe in God. To me, faith in the divine is knowing that life is a game... Chill maaro yaar; everything is being taken care of :) There is an up for every down. "Its the darkest before dawn"... etc... I feel having faith in the divine does not weaken you. It in fact empowers you to see things as a game; look at your problems as challenges and gives you the energy & enthusiasm to tackle them head on. I got this story in a forward. Wanted to share it... Many of you might have already read it... Here it goes anyways :

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.” The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

“I can erase my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

One year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.

“I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”And she led the old man away.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

All the best for all your endeavors... Have fun and enjoy life :)

The Old Carpenter

I came across this short story by Swami Vivekananda.... It was amazing & I just had to share it here. Thanks to Chaitali Joshi for sending me the link to IIT Madras' Vivekananda Study Circle which you should all check out btw... http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/
The story goes:

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his
employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building
business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his
extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.
They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good
worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.
The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart
was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used
inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house,
the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house,
he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had
built none too well. So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way,
reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best.
At important points we do not give the job our best effort.
Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created
and find that we are now living in the house we have built.
If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house.
Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall.
Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build.
Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be
lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it- yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes
and the choices you make today.

I guess we can all relate to this story at various levels. We have this amazing habit of doing something halfheartedly & then regretting/cursing ourselves after... This is probably one of the biggest impediments to us achieving happiness in life. We must give our 100% in everything we do. Then the results wont matter at all then. I guess moving under the assumption that all our duties are going to contribute to the building of our own house would take us a long way forward...
I'd like to conclude in Swami Vivekananda's own words, "Come up O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are soul immortal, spirits free and eternal "