Addiction

You like something, you start with it, you keep doing it and sometime later, bang! you are addicted to it. The worst thing is, you don’t admit it when people say that you are addicted. Or rather you don’t realize that you are addicted.

Addiction can be about anything, absolutely anything. About playing Counter-strike, playing cards, facebook, chatting, bowling, and watching movies, anything. Getting addicted to a girl also counts here!

The general idea about addiction that when you are hooked on to something for a long time, it’s addiction. It’s not my way of looking at it. Addiction is when you find it difficult to live without that something. It’s like when you play computer games for long time, that's not addiction, but if you feel restless when you don’t get an opportunity to play computer games, that’s addiction and that’s bad.

There are people around us who would call it a dull day if they weren’t to play some stupid game on facebook or talk hours and hours on gtalk. People who would get frustrated if their favorite IPL or EPL team is playing and they can’t watch it. People, who would not be able to bear the thought of not watching their favorite director’s movie on the first day, first show and so on.

Addiction is bad because it takes control over your life and moreover, you don’t even realize that. It’s like the boss who dictates you the terms. People are so addicted to chatting or texting or phone convos that they do not acknowledge the people around them.

I never want to be addicted to anything in life and I’m pretty sure that I will never be. I might get a hundred good things from life, I might buy another hundred good things, but there will be nothing that I will not be able to live without. I remember a good line I once read.

I would like to earn so much that I could buy whatever I want. I would like to grow up so much so that I could live life without all of it.

Nice sentence. It’s also true with all the things money can’t buy. Like close friends. If tomorrow the person whom you love gives you a cold shoulder, your life should not become a disaster; instead you should have the courage to move on.

Life is all about making the best of what you have, not about what could have been the best for you!

Problems

Problems, everyone has them, but the way we approach them makes us different. It is good to be a spectator sometimes, listening to the problems of people around you and how they tackle them.

At times you are hearing about people who feel the pressure in handling the smallest of the problems. On the other hand, there are some who will never let the gravest of the problem tear them apart. You learn from both the type of people. One teaches you what not to do while handling a crisis, other one tells you how to face the crisis.

But, it’s not so easy always. Sometimes you see people stuck with a problem not handling it the right way. You feel had you been there yourself in that situation, you would have done things differently. But, one fine day, the same problem strikes you. You fare no better in handling it. Weird, but true!

I admire one of my friends when it comes to facing problems. He tells me, ‘Most of the things that we consider to be problems aren’t problems in the first place’. I feel he’s right. Problems are there for a reason. They make us who we are, how our lives shape up depends on how we handle them. If it is something that will shape our lives, then how is it a problem?

I’ve never seen this friend of mine succumb to any pressure from problems around, not cribbing about any of them. Not running away from them either, sometimes going from one defeat to another with no loss of enthusiasm. He was once consolidating someone who has just dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent saying things would be fine, whereas he himself had 60 percent marks in the exams. He was a person who would give in his best and then accept what the scoreboard says. This guy didn’t even get pissed off when his girlfriend of long time dumped him. He instead gave us a break-up party!

A week before the 12^th board exams, he fell of the staircase, fractured almost half his body, the left side, was bedridden and still appeared for the boards without a writer. His scores were affected badly, but he never cried about it. Maybe someday his scores will ruin his chances of getting admitted into a premier educational institute, agreed, still how is crying about the situation going to help? Making the most of what he could achieve was the thing he should’ve done and he did exactly the same.

Life is not a disaster when you are plagued with problems. Life is a disaster when you stop fighting the problems around you. Nobody could’ve known a certain Lance Armstrong if he didn’t have the fighting spirit.

These and a few other examples make me want to reflect on my own life. I’ve sometimes let problems dominate me, acted weirdly in situations, freaked out. But that won’t be a problem anymore. The world is full of people fighting millions of problems. I’ll face my share of problems, that too in a sporting way!