Piece of Mind - Pun
Intended
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Piece of Mind - Pun
Intended
Kirti Krishna
NotionPress
5 Muthu Kalathy Street, Triplicane, Chennai 600005
First Published by NotionPress
Copyright © Kirti Krishna 2013
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: 978-93-82447-37-5
This book is sold subject to condition that it shall
not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold
or hired out, circulated and no reproduction in any
form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations
in critical articles or reviews) may be made without
written permission of the publishers.
This book has been published in good faith that the
work of the author is original. All efforts have been
taken to make the material error-free. However, the
author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility
for any inadvertent errors.
To my father
The Late N. L. Krishna
And for all the dreams he dreamt…
Invictus
- William Earnest Henley
Out of the night that covers me
Black as a pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods maybe
For my unconquerable soul
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet, the menace of the years
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Piece of Mind - Pun Intended
Finds and shall find me unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Acknowledgements
I could never take full credit for anything that
I have done. The truth is, there are a lot many
people who have inspired me, helped me grow
and who have ensured that I put my best foot
forward through in and through out my life.
These people have always believed in my views,
my opinions and have ensured that the
happiness I get from them is unadulterated and
pure. Therefore, this book is a product of my
learning from them, from my interactions with
these many people. Without mentioning a few
of them and thanking them for placing their
faith and belief in me, this book would never be
complete.
First and foremost, my heartfelt gratitude is
owed to my beloved mother Radhika, for having
fought through all odds in her life to always
ensure my contentment and peace of mind.
Thank you, mummy, for believing in my
capabilities over anyone else and for constantly
pushing me forward to achieve great things in
life. None of this would be possible without you!
My heartfelt gratitude goes out to my dearly
loved aunt, Parvathi and her husband, Narayan.
Amma and Mama, the life the two of you have
lived is ever so inspiring! The lessons you have
taught me through the course of my life has
always helped me fight past any obstacle and
surge ahead. I owe you a lot more than mere
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gratitude. But for now, ‘thank you’ is the least I
can say.
My gratitude also goes out to my extended
family from both my paternal and maternal side
for being accommodative, affectionate, and
unfailingly kind individuals.
Apart from family, friendship has always played
a very key role in my life. Without the presence
of a few friends, life would never have been what
it is today. My humble thanks go out to Ismail,
for always providing me with good counsel and
for being so patient with me. Ranju for always
making me believe that I could never be alone
and for sharing with me her packets of wisdom.
Abinaya, for always working with me, by my
side and ensuring everything is set to perfection.
Vishnu, for being a friend, a brother and over
anything else an inspiration. Adithya and Arun,
for always ensuring that I have fun, come what
may. My thanks go to my buddy, Joyjayanthi, a
June 22 born like me, for being my 04:00 A.M.
friend despite the fact that she lives miles away.
Much of my gratitude is owed to Dr. Olinda
Pereira and Ms. Celiene Aranha, two of the finest
people I have ever met! The humility and
humanity they have taught me stands
unparalleled. Thank you for having motivated
me so much!
Hema auntie - for being ever so ideal with your
thoughts and for being ever so faultless as a
person – Thank you.
Acknowledgements
v
The strength of a team is definitely far greater
than the strength of an individual. And
fortunately for me, I have the best team as a
support system which in complete has helped
me bring this whole book together. Specially
mentioning a few, my gratitude goes out to:
Shaun, Moses, Trisha, Nitin, Kavya, Neetu,
Ankita, Asma, Pratheek, Harini for helping me
get this baby rolling – Thanks guys!
Considering the fact that I practically have a
bandwagon of friends the names on the top of
my head right now deserve to be mentioned and
this, for a simple reason that they mean a lot
to me. So thank you Deeksha, Deepthi, Soumya,
Aurelia, Meera, Rounak, Harsha, Preethika,
Ashwini, Greeshma, Santhosh, Rizwana, Adnan,
Jaan, Chinmayi, Kruthika, Ashok, Dhrvia, Wafa,
Shanel, Megha, and all those others for always
having stood by me and for ensuring that I make
the best of myself – Thanks a million, guys! This
book would not have been what it is without you
– Thank you!
I would like to thank my bosses, Rasmeet,
Charanjot and Sidd for being as enthusiastic as I
am about the book and for being so encouraging
– means a lot to me. My gratitude goes out to
my colleagues as well.
This acknowledgment would stand incomplete
if I failed to thank Naveen Valsakumar and
Bhargava from NotionPress. Without them, my
publishers, none of this would have been
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possible. Thank you, guys!
To err is human, to forgive is divine (too cheesy
no?), anyway, if I have missed out on thanking
anyone, trust me, it is not intentional. I am
deeply grateful for your presence in my life.
Last but not the least, thank you, God, you have
never let me down and you never will.
Prelude
O
k! So let’s get down straight to business
and cut to the chase. Before I start sharing
my views and opinions about a lot of things we
collectively refer to and call “Life”, I just want to
spell things out right in the beginning lest we
have a few doubts coming along somewhere
along the pages of this book and you are left
clueless and baffled. For starters… No! This, my
dear friend is not a book you can classify as
“self-help”. Instead, this is something I would
like to call “self-guidance”. What now is selfguidance? you may ask. Self-guidance is nothing
but means using which you can guide and
channelize yourself towards a path you
personally carve for yourself with very little or
rather, absolutely no help. In fact, my primary
attempt through this odyssey is going to make
you realize how awesome your life is and yet,
how you continue to ill-treat yourself and not
give yourself the importance you must. I am
going to be telling you that happiness and peace
of mind are relative and when happiness comes
and goes, with a certain amount of courage and
a little dedication, you can keep your peace of
mind intact. What I am going to emphasize on is
how it is important for you to keep a track of all
happy things and move ahead of self-victimizing
yourself when you’re going through a rough
patch.
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I have reached a moment in life today which
feels absolutely serene and calm. At twentythree, I have a good understanding about
myself, about my life, and a rich feeling which
makes me feel complete. For some reason
unknown to me, I have a feeling that my life
has already come one full circle. You know, life
has successfully managed to teach me several
lessons in this long walk I have had with it.
There have been times when I have laughed
until I have cried, times when I have cried until I
have begun to laugh laughing at my own misery
and hopelessness. But today, I sit here and think
– what is life without all that happiness and
sorrow? Am I going to just allow my life to go
away in thin air - *poof*? No. It has made me
what I am today, and I am absolutely grateful to
it for having taught me numerous lessons and
making every moment feel so worthwhile. The
greatest “help” you have is your own life and
with a little guidance from no one but yourself,
there are tremendous things you can achieve.
A part of me lives deep within my soul which
constantly reminds me that I have not done
enough to bring in a change. I have realized
that I have enough power to move beyond my
horizons and change what I think is not good
enough. I have a driving force that resides
within my heart and it constantly keeps telling
me to do something which can at least bring
about a small constructive and positive
difference around where I am, the people I
interact with and the ones I know. But then I
ask that feeling back, when I have the power and
Prelude
ix
the skill of speech and writing, why not share my
thoughts with the whole world? Wouldn’t that
make a bigger, more constructive difference?
A day then dawned itself upon my being when
I finally chose to express myself through the
power of words. I chose to begin exploring my
skills and potentials and began sharing my views
and opinions with the rest of the world. What
you are going to be reading through this book
is just about that. I have made a very earnest
attempt to avoid being vague about my opinions
and stay as honest and plain as possible. I want
you to know that you can do what I am doing
as well and maybe do it a lot better than me.
I want you to know and understand that there
is nothing that is beyond your capabilities and
there is hardly anything very less that you
cannot achieve. My aim is to make you realize
that there is so much for you to do in life and so
much to achieve. Through this book and through
the little lessons it has to offer, I am going to
catalyze you so that you begin to guide yourself
into realizing your skills and potentials and will
personally help you make a very conscious
decision that you will take all the efforts to
make the best out of yourself.
There is one facet of life which I wish to bring
to your understanding right at this sacred
beginning: The concept being that of death.
As harsh as it sounds, death as we know it is
when our body is completely unresponsive to
the surroundings and when “spiritually” we have
attained a higher realm and left what remains of
Piece of Mind - Pun
Intended