No pain, No gain!

No pain, No gain!
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Last week, we were working out at the fitness center. Our trainer was encouraging us to work out more. He was looking after each individual and assisting whenever needed. Kapil, one of our friends, was not able to do push-ups. Trainer asked him the reason. Kapil said, “Push-ups are quite painful and hard for me. I am not able to lift up my body.” By looking at his overweighed body, that was quite possible and obvious reason. But, the trainer gave him a hard look and said, “If you really want to be fit, then you should do as I say. Remember one thing, no pain, and no gain! Now start doing push-ups. Do as much as you can.” And he left the room. We all were shocked by those words from such a friendly trainer. Although they were harsh, they were true!

In our life, we come across many situations where we do not wish to face them by looking at pain they will cause. Also, we do not want to take risk. At times, we forget that most of the successful people in this very world could achieve their goals only after taking risks. Risks treated with ample amount of efforts and given appropriate time can help us reach our goal. But, this thing is overridden by fear. And fear is of the amount of pain we might face during the process.

Fear is a good thing but it should not control us. It should not occupy our mind completely which will lead us giving up. Fear should not lead to losing. Rather it should lead us to take precautions during risks resulting achieving desired goal. Always, there should be plan ‘B’ when we are preferring plan ‘A’. And plan ‘B’ is prepared for precautionary purpose. What if I got failed?
Sometimes this pain is not of considering failure. It could be about valuable time which will be wasted while facing the situation. We want to perform another task which is as important as of current situation. Even though there is pain of wasting time, understand the difference between what is important and what is important and urgent; and act accordingly.

Also there is one thing which is equally important in our lives. When something bad happens, we remember it. It is destiny. I heard during childhood, whatever happens is for a good reason. So, do not get frustrated by looking at the situation. Just face it. You will surely get something good at the end of it.

Did I go away from our subject a little bit? Did I only write about facing bad incidents ruining our growth and get rid of them? I think yes. I did not mention other side of the coin. Sometimes we have to try hard to reach at top of the mountain. We have to look at the hurdles. Plan our strategy to overcome them. We have to pay more attention to the progress and may need change in plan at times. We should be ready to do so. Slow and steady wins the race.

At the end, it reminds me of two quotes. First is “Don’t quit. You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Get a reward from it.” And second is “Pain is temporary, pride is forever.”

Sunit S. Pendse
2nd December 2015

A lesson from Nature…!

A lesson from Nature…!
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God has gifted us a world with beautiful things known as nature. The sea and sea beaches are one of the excellent gifts of god. The beach is motionless for number of years. The unfathomable ocean is trying to move it with the help of its strong waves. But, every strong wave makes beautiful designs on sand and returns to grab more energy. Both, the ocean and beach have not changed. Ocean keeps trying and beach doesn’t respond. It is pleasure to watch their struggle, an immense beauty of nature. But, is there anyone else apart from us getting benefit from this battle? Yes, it is sand. Sand enjoys Sunbath like humans and keeps itself clean with the help of waves resulting Sand to shine and become more attracted. Sometimes tide also brings gifts for Sand in the form of Shells, pearls and beautiful ornaments made up of them.

I always feel happy and fresh when I am with all three of them. Altogether they teach us a lesson. If we keep trying like ocean with strong and unstoppable efforts, be loyal to our principles; then we will be shining like sand being successful human being. Isn’t it?

Sunit S. Pendse
27th May 2015
Sunitpendse.blogspot.com

Courage

Courage
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Courage to me is like to convert weakness into ability, obstacles into the stepping stones and disaster into triumph. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the conquest of fear.
- Navjyot Singh Siddhu, Former Cricketer, India

I was looking for videos of Navjyot Singh Siddhu's opinions about Sachin Tendulkar, the God of Cricket on YouTube. I found a video of his inspirational speech which he gave at Discon 2010 arranged by Rotary club of Bombay in Mumbai. He was talking about courage. In a video of around 48 minutes, he had given various examples of his cricket life which supported the topic. Wow, what a man with such amazing thoughts! He began the speech with first two lines which are the beginners of this article too.

Sometimes we are in a life or death situation. Not actually meant to the words, but it involves risk, may be smaller or bigger. Somehow, we are not ready to face the situation by taking risk. "let's continue whatever is going on or look for the easy option to face the situation." is our thought most of the times. Is something bothering us? If yes, then what it is? How can we tackle this to get better outcome?

Fear is a part of life. Being afraid of something is not bad, fear has to be there in life. But, it should not take control of our mind. If it does, we are not ready to face challenges, not ready to look for any options. And yes, we are not ready to choose better option to get better outcome, rather we accept the options which will give us minimal or no results. And we become a losers.

Why to become a loser and think about it rest of the life? Disasters are not in our hands, but we can find better solution to get rid of the situation. the only thing needed is courage. Just stand still and control your mind. Be strong. Control your fear and keep calm. Try to be calm even though conditions are against you. Being at peace gives eternal comfort and helps to be courageous. It helps to find out multiple solutions of a problem. Look for the better option and go with it. "What will they say?" is a killing dialogue. It kills most of the actions which will help you to grow. Remember, you are responsible for your actions. The society will talk in many ways. They will talk good and bad about it. But you have to believe in yourself to achieve something. Like Siddhu said, You got to be a believer first and then you can become an achiever. Never have doubt on your actions, have faith. Because, doubt creates a mountain and faith tunnels through that mountain. it just erases that mountain.

Most importantly, do not expect immediate results. Give relevant time. Edison had tried 1000 times to create a light source. He never said that he failed, rather he said that he found 999 ways of failure and one way of success. Never give up. You never know when the situation will change and you will start walking on path of success instead of failure. Just keep trying, keep trying and keep trying!

Sunit S. Pendse
18th March 2015
sunitpendse.blogspot.com

Rappelling - A Thrilling Experience

Rappelling - A Thrilling Experience
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"In the month of January, there will be a trek to Dhak-Bahiri. It includes rappelling. Will you be interested?" One day morning I received this message on whatsapp messenger from a friend.
I replied, "Not sure. I will let you know."

I was kinda busy in office work and this message disturbed me a bit. An invitation for a trek to an unknown place. I was thinking whether I should go or not? Then I discussed with parents and decided to go. I had applied for the leave and it got sanctioned. I had called Giridarshan trekking club, Pune and booked my seat. Everything was happening just like destiny.

Rappelling, does it mean getting down from top of a huge rock patch with the help of a rope? Will I be able to do it being afraid of heights and having no previous experience? Will I fall? Will it be safe? There were many questions and answers were yet to come.

We began our journey from Pune at 11 PM on Friday and reached Jambhavali village at 1:15 AM. It was very cold and we decided of camp fire. I had never seen such moonlight in a metro city. I could even see my shadow clearly in such moonlight of 6th day after full moon. We were enjoying Camp fire with songs. Later at 3 am, we went to sleep and got up early in the morning. Our mentor had asked to prepare ourselves for the trek. And he suggested us to take only those things which are needed in few bags as we had to climb the rocks. We had breakfast, introduced ourselves and started walking towards the caves.

We walked through the trees and reached a place where we had to get down through narrow rocks. With the help of ropes and knots we came down one after the other. Two of Giridarshan's members went ahead of us for making rock climbing and rappelling preparations. They have aligned ropes on the rocks with the help of anchors. I reached the rock climbing starting point. One of our mentors tied a rope tight around my waist and attached a carabiner. He hanged the carabiner to the aligned rope and asked me to walk normally. I had seen him with a question and tension on my face. He said, "Just walk normally, lean towards rocks, look at gaps in rocks where you can put your feet and go ahead. In the meantime, untie the carabiner at anchor and tie to next rope aligned on rocks."

I nodded my head and started walking. There was only one thing in my mind, 'I have to reach the caves no matter what happens, without falling.' I started looking for rock gaps where I can put my feet and walk further. I was also guiding my friends who were after myself for the road through those rocks. During rock climbing, one should look for the support of steady rocks. The one should look for rock gaps where he can put the feet or hold by hand and pull himself up. We used same way and climbed slowly. When I reached the caves, I felt proud for this adventure. But one more was yet to come and that was rappelling.

Our mentors gave us instructions about our posture during rappelling. They have given us the information about harness, carabiner, ropes etc. Many of us were rappelling for the first time. As anyone is getting ready and going to rappel down, we were cheering up and clicking the photographs.

And now, it was my time. One of our mentors tied harness around my body. He hanged 8 figure descender and carabiner to the harness on front side and locked them tight. He gave me a helmet to wear and hand gloves. I started shivering because of height. There were two ropes attached to the carabiner and 8 figure descender. I was having one rope in my hand and the other rope was in a mentor's hand. My rope was helping me to rappel down whereas mentor's rope was to control my movement during rappelling.

During rappelling, one must keep his knees straight, keep distance between both legs, left hand should be on front side and right hand should be on back side both holding the rope. Using left hand you can release the rope and using right hand you can control it. Until and unless you make the rope loose by right hand, you will not be able to release it using left hand and rappel down. You should lean backwards and be at 90 degrees to the rocks. No need to worry as 95% of your weight is taken care by harness so you won't fall.

I listened to every instruction but still fear took over my mind. I could hardly manage to keep my knees straight. When I lost control, I shouted as "I lost control" and mentor in cave held my rope tight. I was steady in the air. I started to come down slowly and reached the end. The mentor downstairs caught the rope and untied harness. He made me free from all these equipments and asked me to go to the caves downstairs where others were sitting. I was shivering all the time. First time adventure was a thrilling experience. I rapplled for 80 feet successfully and wasn't able to believe it. We returned to the base, had lunch and started our journey back to Pune.

I don't know who carried what at the end but I carried lessons with me from this trek. The lessons are "no matter what happens stand like rock", "fear is a good thing but let it not control your mind" and "take risks and conquer your fears".

This was a short story of my first adventure. Would you like to share yours?

Sunit S. Pendse
14th January 2015
sunitpendse.blogspot.com