The same old blue skies, the same sun, same city, same people around .. then why does everything look different and new to my eyes? I don’t know why.. but today i felt so different… nah nah! not ‘coz it’s friday! … It was just another working day.. Today at 11:00 a.m, I had to drop my car at the service center for a 30,000 mile service. After finishing the paper work, we got a ride back to our home.. had lunch and uday was off to work.

I cleaned up my room.. and was back to my laptop checking e-mails and reading my friends’ blogs. After reading a couple of blogs, I decided to watch a movie..a hindi movie - Deewane Huye Paagal..the comedy is fine.. you can watch it once. Time passed by and I got a call at 4:30 p.m from the service center that my car is ready and that the shuttle is on its way to pick me up.

So I rushed, got ready and was waiting outside. I was walking around the hillock that we live on.. and suddenly my attention turned to the trees. You must be wondering what’s with the trees.. you see them daily…big deal! … Yeah! that’s right. I was wondering too!

..what really caught my eye was that these trees were looking beautiful at dusk in golden colour… I started to enjoy the view, the hills, the horses running, the birds chirping .. I felt very refreshing and energized! And that changed me in some subtle, unkown way !

So the driver comes on time.. picks me up. On the way to the showroom, we kept talking about the traffic jams, different routes in the city( as I was new) and how the day was to both of us etc etc., so while dropping me off at the service center, I waved a bye along with a “have a nice weekend”.. and he said ‘thanx.. take it easy!’

I didn’t quite understand why he said that.. n before I could turn back n ask him he left.. so I went to the cashier n gave my autograph [had to sign some papers ;)]

Finally my car arrived and while I was driving back home, I realised why the driver said take it easy… ‘coz for the very first time I was looking very confused and was constanlty thinking about why I was feeling different! I never looked that confused and out of place…and then it dawned on me!

I realised that in life we are surrounded with different kinds of obstacles which keep us away from reaching our goals and the challenge is to overcome the obstacles… and the best way to get over it is accept it with a smile! ..

I used to give an example to all my friends who were in distress.. simple but I guess it makes sense: ‘think that your goal is like Mt.Everest..when you see it from far .. it looks beautiful and the path looks easy.. but when you start walking towards it, the path becomes difficult and you will face many obstacles..You can make it to the peak of Everest/goal only if you have a challenge in life..’

I know it sounds silly, but that’s my policy. Here’s my favourite quote by Swami Vevekananda : “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”