Book Review: Think Straight

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Think straight is all about training your mind to move from chaos to clarity and that is what the cover of the book represents! It is a very small but powerful book. I like to read books related to self-help and I have already read some books from the authors such as Robin Sharma, Paulo Coelho, and Mark Manson. I found that Darius has somewhat similar writing style to Mark. He does not try to be philosophical instead he tried to convey the message as much straight (short) as possible. No related stories just a description about how can we train our brain to think straight with his own or other philosopher's examples. One more interesting thing I found in the book is that there are lot of quotes from other people and brief explanation in the context of thinking straight. It won't take more than two hours to read it and I would highly recommend it to our readers who wants to improve their thinking.

Here are some of the highlights of the book:

• "The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it." - William James
• Just sit down, be one with your thoughts, observe them, and then, ignore them. That’s all there is to meditation.
• "Conquer yourself rather than the world." - René Descartes
• "There are no facts, only interpretations." - Friedrich Nietzsche
• Only think about things you can control. That automatically eliminates about 99% of your thoughts because there’s very little you control in life.
• It’s better to be aware of your thoughts and decide what you will ignore, and what you will give importance to.
• I like to avoid assumptions as much as I can. I prefer to look at facts and then draw conclusions. What if you can’t rely on facts? Well, sometimes you just can’t find facts, or you have to make a quick decision. In those (very rare) cases I prefer gut feeling. Whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses.
• "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs
• Achieving a goal never happens linearly. Most of us believe there’s a straight line from where you are to where you want to be.
• If everyone is doing one thing, that often means you shouldn’t.
• Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.
• “We usually think of ourselves as sitting in the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires—with how we want to view ourselves-than with reality.” - Dan Ariely
• “The life of wisdom is a life of reason. It is important to learn how to think clearly. Clear thinking is not a haphazard enterprise. It requires proper training.” - Epictetus
• “If there is any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human brain—the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can’t even begin to fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of technology in sophistication and usefulness.” - Robert Greene
• “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” - Marcus Aurelius
• With practice, you can get better at controlling your thoughts, so you can decide what you think.
• “If you can change your mind, you can change your life.” - William James

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जी भर कर ले क़ोशिश तू मेरा काम मीटा पाएगा

जी भर कर ले क़ोशिश तू मेरा काम मीटा पाएगा,
पर कसम मेरे ख़ुदा की हर तख़्त पे मेरा वजूद छूट जाएगा।
.
जन्न्त सा में नहीं जो तू मुझे बिगाड़ पाएगा,
जहन्नम सा काला हूँ तेरा साँया भी मुझ में मिल जाएगा।
.
वक़्त की तासीर है, आज मेरे साथ नहीं,
जब साथ आएगा तो लम्हा भी मेरी इजाज़त ले आगे जा पाएगा।
.
- अभिजीत मेहता

Books authored by Mr. Abhijeet Mehta

वो आज़ादी के लिए सर उठाएंगे।

जहां शांति के पाठ पढ़ाए जाते थे,,
वहाँ किताबे छोड़, हथियार थामे जाएंगे।
जिन हाथो में कलतक बरतन पाए थे,
उनमें किसी बंदूक से औज़ार पाए जाएंगे।

न अल्लाह के बन्दे है वो,
न राम के योद्धा है वो।
किसी वज़ीर-ए-आज़म की सेना से मारे गए,
कुछ काफिरों के परिवार है वो।

काफ़िर है वो तेरे लिए ए वज़ीर,
ख़ुद में इंसानियत के ख्वाब है वो।
कुछ लम्हों में मची तबाही में,
थोड़े से बचे इन्सान है वो।





किसी रोज़ उस बापू ने दिखाया एक ख़्वाब था,
सत्य, अहिंसा और शांति का पैगाम था।
उस पल जो अंग्रेज़ ने जलाया वो जलियावाला बाग़ था,
आज तूने जो जलाया वो शायद शाहीन बाग़ था।

अब लड़ेंगे हम, छीनेंगे हम,
हिन्दू-मुस्लिम हरघर में भगतसिंह को पूजेंगे हम।
शांति से न दी आज़ादी,
अब उस आज़ादी को तेरी कुर्सी को जलाकर लेंगे हम।





हर गली, महोल्ला जलाकर,
एक हवन कुंड बनाया तूने।
पहले गुजरात का और,
अब हिंदुस्तान का राजयज्ञ किया तूने।

जिस खून की तूने होली खेली,
उस खून का रंग लगाएंगे।
इस शांति के सफेद परचम को हम,
लाल झंडा बनाएंगे।

चीख-चीख हम थक है गए,
अब लड़कर जवाब दे जाएंगे।
खामोशी की मजबूरी को हथियार बना,
तेरे सीने को चीर डालेंगे।





हिन्दू, मुस्लिम, सीख, ईसाई,
आपस मे मील जाएंगे।
जो छूत-अछुत में लड़ रहे थे,
वो आज़ादी के लिए सर उठाएंगे।

जहां शांति के पाठ पढ़ाए जाते थे,,
वहाँ किताबे छोड़, हथियार थामे जाएंगे।
जिन हाथो में कलतक बरतन पाए थे,
उनमें किसी बंदूक से औज़ार पाए जाएंगे।

- अभिजीत मेहता
लाल सलाम
लाल सलाम

Books authored by Mr. Abhijeet Mehta

Why Should We Have To Prove Our Patriotism?

It is an old article which I found relevant in current context and that's why I am re-posting it.

Date: 11th August 2018

It was 22nd August 1907, 40 years ago the independence, the world was not a victim of India’s struggle for freedom and A young lady wave the Indian Flag in International Socialist Conference in Germany and proved her Patriotism, she was Madam Bhikaiji Cama.

Why am I repeating this incident? Once I was taking a regular lecture in ‘Happy Home‘ and I was teaching Simple Past Tense and my students wants me to tell them a story, usually I told them the stories of our past but on that day they are doing mischief so I was not in a mood to tell. But, at the same time, one of the students commented that ‘First learn past might be possible it will be useful in future.’ This line touched my heart.

Today, the situation is being like this. Just Yesterday, After Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mr. Yogi Adityanath; Chief Minister of Madhyapradesh Mr. Shivaraj SIngh Chauhan sent a notice to Madrasa that, ‘On this independence, Muslims have to prove their nationalism by organizing a Flag Hosting and Cultural Program in every madrasa.’ Here the question is not about organizing a program but the question is why only Muslims have to do this?

On 15th August 1947, all Muslims already proved their Patriotism by staying in India. If BJP claiming that more Muslims are involved in terrorist activity and that’s why they have to prove their nationalism then I want to comment that, it’s not a question of Muslims, here we have to understand that our neighbor country who gives shelter to terrorist is Muslim Country and that’s why more terrorist are coming from that background.

Now I would like to quote the definition of terrorism which is given in the constitution, defining acts of terrorism veritably as ‘peacetime equivalents of war crimes.’ The now lapsed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act specified the following definition of terrorism:

Whoever with intent to overawe the Government as by law established or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people or to alienate any section of the people or to adversely affect the harmony among different sections of the people does any act or thing by using bombs, dynamite or other explosive substances or inflammable substances or lethal weapons or poisons or noxious gases or other chemicals or by any other substances (whether biological or otherwise) of a hazardous nature in such a manner as to cause, or as is likely to cause, death of, or injuries to, any person or persons or loss of, or damage to, or destruction of, property or disruption of any supplies or services essential to the life of the community, or detains any person and threatens to kill or injure such person in order to compel the Government or any other person to do or abstain from doing any act, commits a terrorist act.

According to this definition, terrorism is not bond to any cast or religion. so, after spending 70 years in a country and paying taxes, casting our votes, sending our children in the army and civil services, giving the best scientist to a country we are asking a question to this BJP Government and RSS that, “Why Should We Have To Prove Our Patriotism?”

If you like then share this on your timeline

 - Abhijeet Mehta

 

Article Source: https://abhijeetmehta.wordpress.com/2018/08/11/why-should-we-have-to-prove-our-patriotism/

Books authored by Mr. Abhijeet Mehta