Shaikh Ashraf's Blog: Shaikh Ashraf Writes, page 14
April 21, 2016
Checkmate Your Hurdles
I am a player of chess from many years. I stopped playing it every day but now I am playing this game every day. It is a good game; it makes you a great strategist. It builds your intellect and helps you to make great critical decisions. Most people tell chess is for smart people but I say chess makes you smart. You do not have to be an intellectual giant to play chess. A chess game teaches you many things about life. You can really learn a lot from chess and apply these principles in your life. You can checkmate your hurdles by strategizing properly. Here is what chess teaches you about life.
Strategic Approach: – You move a pawn ahead, and then you bring your horse to the play. You plan and workout each step in your mind before implementing that step. That is how life is, every moment, every hour; we have to plan to spend it strategically. You are faced by many hurdles, drawbacks, your opportunities are failing. If you develop a strategic approach towards life and plan out everything before heading towards some goal, the hurdles will be less.
If you take successive steps, productive steps, then you will eventually checkmate your drawbacks; you can eventually checkmate your hurdles. Consider what is stopping you from achieving something, you consider that as an element of chess, then take successive steps to checkmate on the face of that drawback.
Think from 360° – You, are too, focused about your horse, which is in danger by a bishop, you move a pawn ahead for the safety of your horse, but that pawn is in danger by Queen. Your pawn dies and then eventually horse dies too. This happens in life many times, you prepare for something, and you keep everything aside to do it. You follow a routine to get that complete, you manage your time, but somehow your time is lost. Why is that? Ok so, you just managed your time but did you consider what step your mind is taking, lack of focus. Everyone in this world are running towards something, are chasing something against time, but they do not guard their focus. Focus can burn anything at a point. To finish something, or to get ahead in life, your mind is against you, it lacks focus. Then checkmate that focus, by knowledge, knowledge is your bishop, the more knowledge you get the more you can improvise and more good decisions you make. So, use your bishop your knowledge and your pawn your time to checkmate you mind’s lack of focus.
So think from all sides, then use your resources carefully and then voila! Eureka! Checkmate.
Think critically – Chess makes you a critical thinker. That is obvious isn’t it? You critically workout each step and think whether that step is accurate or not, whether that step is right or wrong. Therefore, chess challenges your critical thinking abilities and enhances it. Your life is the result of your decisions; you are thinking and your attitude. So, when you get critical in life. You question your assumptions, you question your decisions, and then you improvise accordingly. Therefore, chess and life is the same way, in chess, you decide whether to take a further step and in life, you have to think like that.
Gain insight: – In chess, you understand the opponent’s steps. You question yourself why the opponent did this. What is going in his mind? What will happen next if you go according to opponent’s way? You ask yourself these questions and then play accordingly. Gaining insight is important too in life. Whatever work you do whatever career you have opted. Whatever, the thing you are learning, You try to gain as much as insight as, possible. As I wrote, knowledge is your bishop, so gain as much as insight and use insight resourcefully.
Whatever happens, example if a stock market crashes, the money that you have invested is lost. Then what will you do, you are checkmate but what if you can turn it aside, in 2015 stock market in India crashed and within three days, it rose up to 17000 points. Gain a lot of insight about stocks, investments, and bonds and then diversify your savings. Insight works like magic it helps you make decisions. So use insight and then make your decisions, accordingly.
That is all, so, play your life the chess way, and checkmate your hurdles by having a strategic approach towards life, by gaining insight, by thinking critically and from all angles.
Shaikh Ashraf.
April 16, 2016
Life is pain
Great life Lesson to learn, from Cristian Mihai
“Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” — William Goldman
I’m not a big fan of “positive thinking.” Yes, it’s important that we love ourselves, that we try to see all that is good and worthy of gratitude in us and others. I believe in seeing the light in others and offering them the support they need to better themselves.
But I also know that it is extremely important that we be realistic about what is what and who is who.
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Learning From S.Jobs
I purchased the book, “Steve Jobs” a month ago, I really wanted to read this book form a year, and I discovered it finally. I was just scanning the load of books and there was this book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson. “Whoa,” I told myself and picked up the book. The book is more than 500 hundred pages and reading this book was a huge experiment for me, as I have not read any book more than 250 pages. I started reading it but as I did not have any sufficient time from blogging and writing and answering questions on Quora; I had just dove half way over the book.
The book is wisely, written by Isaacson, he has wrapped every part of life of Steve Jobs, there are more than hundred people he interviewed and thousands of references at the end. In addition, it is inspiring to read that book. A long story of life of, Steve Jobs and the way he made Apple into a big company. I learned a lot from him before reading this book, I was a keen admirer of him as he inspires us to think out of the box and differently and he has passion towards his work. Here goes What We should learn from Steve Jobs:-
Learning from S. Jobs InfographicBe different: – Steve Jobs was different; he was different from among the rest of people, who in the period of personal computing revolution where, people only, stayed, by being an engineer in Silicon Valley. Steve on the other hand had a vision that he desired to create a personal computer that was different from other computers. A computer, that, everyone will love and, die for. Steve Jobs thought differently from others and held a vision this made him become The Steve Jobs of Apple Inc.
Do not settle: – Steve jobs knew what kind of Macintosh he wanted. He never settled for just ordinary, he achieved extraordinary with Macintosh. Yeah, it was a failure but the way he finished the project was great. He criticized his engineers, other people for Macintosh and made it great. Therefore, You should not stay for less, You should preserve improvising Yourselves and keep heading towards the what You want and should not stop till You have it.
Passion: – He had a passion of electronics and computer. He had a passion for graphics that made Pixar Animation studios work with him. Passion is the fuel that keeps You to move forward in life. He knew his passion and he tailed his passions keenly. He loved his each, project, and encouraged his engineers to pursue it.
Be Curious: – Steve jobs was curious, in small age he had interest in electronics and studied all that he can. He was curious in computer and its design and he followed his interest inquisitively. You must be curious and be willing to study everything that catches Your eyes
Experiment: – Steve Jobs was a very good try-it-out kind of person. He made various changes in his diet by reading books. The one I enjoyed the most was mucus less diet. He adopted many diets. He also kept trying new things that made him connect the dots. After getting out from Apple, he might have quit but he tried neXT and worked with Pixar. Therefore, You must be aiming to experiment your knowledge. You must be willing to make changes in your life by trying-out-new things.
Think different – Steve Job’s think different campaign for Apple was remarkable. “People who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are those who really do it” Steve Jobs. This quote made me realize that no matter how much he was, criticized by people and his subordinates but he never stopped thinking differently. He was never afraid to take new projects. You should think different, and must be enthusiastic to do it. You should think new ways to confront the problem; You should think a new attitude towards Your work.
Shaikh Ashraf.
Also,
What To Learn From Reading Novels
How I Wrote, “Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
April 9, 2016
Forrest Gump (1994)
I saw this movie a few days ago, yeah it is an old movie and had released years ago but I came through it some days ago when I was searching for movies to watch. The movie is great in my observation, it is extracted from a novel and brilliantly shot. Tom Hanks, played as “Forrest Gump” was also fantastic. I this era of technology, innovation, and learning we always fret over Intelligence quotient and who is smarter than whom race goes on throughout the lifetime. However, Forrest (Hanks) is different, he is a person who has I.Q lower than 70, he is socially awkward. The movie is a comedy and dramatic, it takes you around many phases of one’s life, love, death, and destiny. Forrest a man who is stupid and intellectually weaker than others are but he is stronger than they are, in feelings and living his life. Opportunities come towards him and he takes them anyway without questioning them. He goes to the army, he plays Ping-Pong, and he was a rugby player. He joins rugby team after; he is, forced to run from his bullies. He gets into Ping-Pong in a military hospital and he becomes an international player of that game. He runs for three years out of frustration and he becomes famous from that. It makes me understand that I.Q is not important in life rather experience is, he got experienced in Ping-Pong, he ran for three years, and he even got into military. Later then the film takes me into failed lives of many people. The captain who got his legs cut-off threatens, Forest that he should not have saved him in Vietnam War. The female lead, who wants to become a singer, but becomes something else, is spoiled. They all fret over their life and what they did not in their lives, they hate their life for not realizing their true dreams. While Forest does not do that, he takes on life and lives whatever comes into in, he neither dreams nor does Forrest complaints about his less I.Q nor his socially awkward attitude. He complains about nothing while his life is more complicated and worst from others. Forest (Hanks) taught me many things about life, dreams, destiny, and the way of living enthusiastically. As the story is extracted from a novel, I want to search for that novel and read it.
Well, in terms of filmmaking, I think it is a nice approach to bookend the movie by showing image of a feather. It starts with the image of a feather, and ends with it, as if the story has reached full circle. In a way, it has. The movie kicks off out with Forrest as a child, and ends with him all grown-up and settled, and with the next generation, his son, just starting out on his own journey. It is delightful to know that the son will not have to face the problems that Forrest had. His son gets a improved start in the world than Forrest had.
The feather moving through the air is representative of Forrest’s journey through life. He is an innocent, beautiful, delicate thing, being, blown this way and that by powers he cannot perhaps hope to understand, and through it all, he journeys far by not fighting, by having no weight, just floating on the wind of life.
Shaikh Ashraf.
Also,
What To Learn From Reading Novels
April 5, 2016
Listen, Oh! People
Listen to your heart, He is telling you something.
Listen to your heart, he is telling you which choices to make.
Listen to your heart, Oh! Look he is crying in grief.
Listen to your heart, Oh! Look he is moaning in pain.
Why do you only go to your mind?
Why do you ask only your mind about choices?
Why do you only make decisions from mind?
What about, the heart?
Why do not you listen to him?
Ok, then, listen to only your mind.
Until the day, you will come to realize that, your heart is not doing anything.
Your heart is not responding for what decisions to make.
Your heart is not responding for what choices to continue.
Your heart is not telling anything.
Your heart is dead! You killed him! You killed your own soul! You killed your own desires!
Only by, only listening to what the mind thinks not by listening what your heart already knows.
April 3, 2016
What To Learn From Reading Novels
I have read many novels this year, starting from
Half Girlfriend, Revolution 2020 and Five Point someone, by Chetan Bhagat
Fault in our stars and Paper towns by John Green
The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
Lee child by Jack Reacher
The Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini
Gone girl by Gillian Flynn
These books are mesmerizing, they refined me a lot, about life, love, and dreams and I love each book on my shelf along with the non-fictions, which I am reading. For that reason, here go what I have understood about writing from reading these books. Writing is about the following, which are, given below-
It makes the reader experience – Books like- Gone Girl, The Kite runner, and Fault in our stars make the readers undergo the reality. These books make them feel what has been, written, these books, have such an intense writing, selection of words and paragraphs that I fell in love with them. Good writing is about making readers feel what you have written by picking right, words at, right place and paragraphs and letting them submerge into the book. Writing is about making the reader sense about the weather, about him, about his companion, about his home and everything else in his life.
Educating the readers – Good writing is about, educating the readers. Many writers educate the readers through their novels. Fault in our stars teaches me about life and love. Kite Runner and The Alchemist educated me about redemption and dreams respectively. So, writing is about enlightening the reader about the countless chapters of life, which is love, hate, anger, peace, compassion, etc. it makes them contemplate about the situations and its consequence and benefits.
Building Emotionallectual Value: – I put together this word, just a few days ago. I was thinking about what should matter me as a writer. Is that royalty or anything that had profound sense than that? It is building emotionallectual value, it means that a book, which makes the reader’s feelings, emotions change and it changes their intellect. Well, it was my idea to build emotionallectual value which has emotion and intellect, that is E + I = EI (Emotionallect). The books that I have read till now has emotionallectual value, like The Alchemist and The Kite runner, it teaches you about many times of being and also make your intellect nurture by phasing out many logical questions about life, that might leave you in awe wondering out loudly.
Writing is about Description: – writers describe everything; they make the reader, immersed in the details so that they learn everything about the novel and feel it. Writing is furnishing attention to the details so thoroughly that it makes the reader dive into the details. Explaining an ocean, food, smell, antagonist, protagonist, road, and traffic is a remark of good writing. He/ she link two different things and present them in a most wonderful way.
Forces the Reader to think: Writing is about making, the reader to think; it compels the reader to think about life, their dreams, hopes, and accomplishments. The characters written in these books, like Gone Girl and The Alchemist, are like one of us, they have dreams, love, hate in their hearts that they carry all through their life. They make big choices to go forward in their life, which causes us also, to think about our life and move forward.
Writing is about Inspiring – Writing is about inspiring the readers, as in The Alchemist depicts a difference about listening to your heart to find treasure and Kite Runner about redemption. It encourages readers to follow their dreams without any fear and live life happily. It forms them to take charge of their responsibilities and their mistakes and rectify them. Therefore, writing is about inspiring people, in their life and helping them cope with their choices.
Writing is Creativity with brilliance: – Creativity is writing from the start to the end and offering something new, is earning brilliance to creativity. Creativity is like a muscle the more you exercise it, the more it builds up. Gone Girl, the novel make you go scratch your head as its plot moves so, momentously, and back and forth. That is what you call creativity with brilliance. Writing is about building creativity, it is writing creatively, or trying a new way of narration, plot, or anything that exercises your creativity and maintaining that creativity along the path.
Questioning Reality: – Good writing makes you question reality. It makes you think about reality with a critical mindset and help you to make better decisions, I have read it somewhere that books teach you to thin, as far as I have read yes it has made me think and carry you critical decisions. Good writing is that actually which makes you question reality and arrive at a better decision.
Shaikh Ashraf.
Also,
How I Wrote, “Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
March 29, 2016
84 hours in 21 days
21 days reading for 84 hoursI read some of James Altucher posts in that he tells about writing for 2-4 hours and reading for about 2-4 hours. I can only read for two hours continuously and just for some days. I kept a timer today and tried to read and I was tired in an hour. It was mostly because of disturbance. I got out for some work and then when I came back and I was unable to read for another hour. That is why many people prefer reading before starting their day; they read their book in the morning when their environment is silent and peaceful and without any disturbance. They read it before the sun rises. Yeah, that’s good too, I am thinking to wake up at 6 tomorrow and read till 8, then read a newspaper, from 8-10 and then continue writing from 10-2, writing and reading should be equal, let’s see what happens. I had done it many times before taking an unwanted break for 3 months. Then I would wake up at 8 and read until 10 the newspaper and then I would take a bath and continue to read a novel that I was currently reading and then I would read until evening and then in the evening I would write as much as possible. Thinking to do it again and it would be easy now was there is no college for 3 months; this habit can be installed correctly. A habit take just 21 days to become a habit, so if I do it for 21 days continuously then think, how much should I had written, how much should I had read for just 21 days. Eight hours of work a day that is 4 hours of reading and 4 hours of writing, wow! Therefore, it would be 84 hours of reading and writing for 21 days. I write five pages in two hours, yes I have less speed, so then think I would have written 210 pages, and read much. Wow, I must do it, it sounds amazing, if I do it another novel can be published and poetry book also, that is all for today, Good night!
21 days writing for 84 hours“Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
How I Wrote, “Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
My Thoughts on :- Kapoor & Sons
Shaikh Ashraf
March 28, 2016
How I Wrote, “Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
Every day this year, I told to everyone and myself that I will become a writer and I became one. No matter if, I ever get to the top list of the Best-selling section, but I will still be writer. I can tell my friends and other people proudly that I am a writer. Well writing is good, you sit down and write your thoughts down for hours and hours and realize you have written a good piece of Art.
What if no one, reads it? What if no, one comes to know about it. What if your book, fades away? Well you have to figure a certain way out for that. I have not figured a way out of that and I feel worried, but all this process remains great to me.
I started writing this novel in March 2015 last year, and I wrote about 10 pages and stopped. I tried to find inspiration every day and write but nothing happened. I was keenly looking for inspiration and inspiration did not come. What was wrong? Was I getting wrong inspiration? Inspiration comes from desire and thinking out of the box. Practically, thinking of new ways, asking questions, and figuring things out. I did all this, I made my novel descriptive, and everything and nothing happened. Then I got a forward push in August. It was August 15, Independence Day. It was my holiday that day and I somehow reached amazon KDP website and I did not know what that was but I saw a headline of self-publishing your book and I was astonished. I researched about KDP more and more and read all the blog posts possible and I thought this was great. Three days of August went figuring out novel, time to write it and time to publish it. Then I continued writing, this time I did not need a board waving “Inspiration?” in my life. “No matter what happens, no matter I ever find any inspiration I have to write,” I told to myself and wrote, wrote and wrote. I read, wrote, edited, wrote, and re-wrote. Everything happened, I wrote more blog posts and read more books and wrote as many things possible, I wrote out ideas, I wrote out themes and plots and I even wrote my novel closest to its end. Then the time came. I was very close to what I have been trying to do for many days, writing a novel but my results came and my marks dropped badly. As it was board exams after three months and I was very close, it was very difficult for me to figure out what to do. Which, way to go, writing, studying, or, both? What happens if I choose anyone now and another later? I got confused and stopped writing and got back to studying, as I knew that whatever happens I would always remain a student, I like to study new concepts and explore more, more, and this time I was exploring something out of my stream of choice, so what. Let me just explore my own stream commerce and study for exams, for three months and then continue writing again. It did not go well, every day I woke up as if I had to do something that I did not want. No new inspiration, no new ideas, and it were nothing. I was happy but something was continuously going on in the back of my mind, it was telling me to, “write that novel” and I was fighting with it every day and tell that “I have to study”.
Three months gone and I did my exams well enough and then I started writing, on the day exams got finished I realized that I opened the document and stared for 5 minutes at the blank document. Then I remembered the whole story and told myself the same line something was telling me at the back of my head for 3 months, “write it” and I wrote it. I was awake until 2 am and wrote it fully. I cried when I made my character die in the end but I finally finished it. I gave myself a high five that night and I felt something inside me lifting up. A feeling you get when you finish something fully on your own, a feeling of joy and accomplishment. Then I wrote a few blog posts and I finally clicked the “publish and continue” button. In addition, I am a writer now who has a blog shaikhashrafwrites and is an author of “Friendship, Love & Sacrifice”
March 27, 2016
My Thoughts on :- Kapoor & Sons
The movie started from a scenic location Coonoor, in that 90 years old played by a 70-year-old talented and charming Rishi Kapoor has just a wish to take a family photo before dying. Arjun played by Siddharth is a struggling writer and furious that his novel’s idea, was robbed, by, his elder brother, played by Fawad a bestselling novelist in London the two come together in Coonoor to visit their grandfather(Rishi Kapoor) who has just got a heart attack. Thoroughly, the story has admirably written, scripted, well directed at beautiful locations and it is about families in actual life. Every family has problems and issues but they all love each other, but this film is a bit unlike, there’s aggression showed expressively by Siddharth towards Fawad and he has played his own character excellent, greater than he played in his movie, Student of the year. Fawad even has played great and his acting impression and expression progressed the film mainly, his deliberateness, towards love for his family and preventing every fight that happens. The two parents did their character but there was no touch and Alia Bhat, well she should do movies like Highway, which gives more highlights to her character. The story in the start is off-putting, boring and less interesting, and then just before first half story starts to shape up and after the interval, the story is fantastic! As intervals are made for that, for generating excitement and a little business for the vendors. The story moves briefly after the first half and each other’s characters expose their own actual selves, which remain additionally exciting.
On Script Writing
Although, I am fulfilled for the 130 rupees I paid for the movie. Family movies have indeed reformed from time in Bollywood. Look at Maine Pyaar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hai Koun, now look at Dil Dhadakne Do and Kapoor and Sons, they have really improved. Before there was just marriage in films that showed families as good and happy but now it has taken a real turn. Script writing now for family movies are taking these films at a wider level, they are displaying each character differently and intensely and the fights that happen in a family due to these characters and it is good. Now writers are going into depth and discovering options and situations in Bollywood, which were not before. Well, I am just telling about some movies, not all. There are also movies whose main aim is to go into the Crore clubs rather than screening art a far-reaching and out of the box level. They lack creativity and filmmaking. All I mean is films should be unique and carrying great weight, also pleasurable and well scripted, the one movie which I found that went through all these is 3 Idiots. It was Different, well written, creative, entertaining and meaningful.
Shaikh Ashraf.
A Peek into “Making India Awesome” by Chetan Bhagat
March 19, 2016
Internet-O2 of 21st century.
Today I woke up early and bought newspaper, internet was not running, so I called the provider and got Wi-Fi router set by him, he said it was reset or something he said in that husky voice, I did not remember, but later then I connected Wi-Fi router and surfed internet. Well it really makes me reflect that while internet was off, for 12 hours, I felt I was out of life, I wanted to watch YouTube videos and dangle on Quora for a while and surf internet but it did not happen, so there was F.R.I.E.N.D.S repeat telecast on TV that got me busy. It really got me into thinking, when internet halts, all work you have done and you have been planning to do, it causes delay, we have come to a thought-provoking juncture where we do maximum of our work in the rectangle or square, mobile and laptops windows respectively. It makes me in awe that, is it great or not? Well for information and social media purposes, it is somehow great, it gives you a lot of information that you can relate to and provide you many other resources that are reliable and effective. Social media can make you connect with friends and other people and you can also influence mass of population via social media, that is an influence in mobile and laptop, it can transform the world, and it can really bring a social revolution.
Also it has side effects too, it is shrink of curiosity and lack of morality, information is smoothly available so maximum of people only grasp the information and doesn’t get anything form them, that is, people only read or accumulate information for well-read purpose, and they are satisfied with just that, what about the application of knowledge? If you have a significant amount of knowledge then you can use it for your and other is constructive purpose, but we have only restrained ourselves to process and accumulate knowledge instead of making use of that knowledge by trying various methods and beliefs and bringing change. Easy readiness of knowledge and less ways to use it can bring a hole in innovation.
If there is nothing we can generate after what we have read, learnt and studied then let there be nothing to read, learn and study, but then, if we can generate an amazing use out of it then let it prosper in the approach of innovation, what we Indians call Jugaad in Hindi.
Absence of morality, many people in social media use pretentious information to sell their products and they have an immoral approach. Many people are there who present themselves as they are professionals in a certain field by changing their bio, and advise others. Social media is currently a con man’s paradise, he can approach you, talk to you and misguide you by making you believe in the fake. So many people use it as a profit-making thing and many use it just for fun, immoral use of social media can affect many people. Every day I read in newspaper about the crimes via internet, the latest is paper leak of accountancy paper of HSC and many more. Many people give you false information just for sake of fun; I got a message that, “Smita Irani, not “Smriti”, is holding a meeting in Delhi for Maharashtra board Rexam of 12th standard of economics subject. Well it was common sense, but I verified if the message is true or not. I knew it was false. However, many of my friends were scared and many were depressed, then I thought what about people, who cannot tolerate economics for just one day, then they must have thought they have to study it again; it must have given them a heart attack! Well it is just my imagination, but, fake massages can really give people heart attack.
So, internet is good and bad, can be used morally and also immorally, it is us who use internet and social media, so it is our duty to make use of these incredible resources smartly and intelligently and also morally. It had turned many people into information seeping idiots rather than information using geniuses. Use it carefully!
Please comment below your feedback regarding this post.
Shaikh Ashraf.
Also,
Ignorance Of The Educated Indians
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