The Mantra of Success

I see there are loads of books available to read how to be successful.
I haven't read any yet but I guess this is true in general what I have realized.
Again I would say it is easy said than done however here it is.

"To be successful you need to be Smarter, Better and Faster than others in every aspect."

1. People need to like the way you look, dress, carry yourself, talk, think, react, process information, work and communicate.
2. People need to like your skills.
3. You need to be social and be able to convey your thoughts, work and experiences across in a way that makes an impact on others.
4. Most people know the same things you know, but if you are smart enough to identify it, better to process it and formulate it in the way it can be communicated and faster enough to communicate it in real time before someone else does it in a way that people can relate to what you are saying will gain you more and better results and rewards.

Magical Experience @Universal Studio, LA

I had to visit LA for a wedding, we were kind of 50 miles away from LA city center but it was still close to LA (closer than Seattle).;)

We reached Wednesday night and we had just one day before all festivities start.
The choice was between Universal Studio and Disney land.
I thought I can do Disneyland in Florida but LA seems to be hub for Sci-Fi movies let me do Universal Studios first.
Until last day I wasn't sure what to expect but then I happened to see a video of Universal Studio tour posted on you tube sometime ago and I was super excited to go there. So much I drove some of my close friends crazy by sharing my excitement.

Well we decided to go on Thursday, hoping the crowd would be less and I am still wondering if the crowd was less on Thursday being a Weekday, I just can't imagine how much would it have been had we had visited Universal studio on a weekend.

Anyway we reached Universal studio and before you enter the Theme Park there is this Shopping Complex "City Loft" it was amazing the kind of stores it had was just too good, especially there were stores which sold only socks of all type and stores that had beautiful gift items and stores with amazing candies and chocolates and then one which sold around 8 types of Pop Corns. Trust me I was awed beyond words can describe, to see all that. ( I did buy a small pack of Chicago style Pop corn, it was yummy :):):)).



Finally we bought tickets and entered the theme park. The Journey Begins with Light Camera Action --->


After the action starts it kind of takes you to Texan Cow Boy style Ranch restaurant and European streets and stores. There were also many stores that sold Harry Potter stuff starting from Wands it had almost everything Cloaks, Owls, cauldrons, brooms, Quidditch stuff and sweaters and uniforms of all houses and list is endless. Well I thought, okay it seems all business.

We went ahead and found ourselves among Minions where Gru and girls were recruiting us to be Minions. Here started our 3D experience and after that I have no words to describe the fun rides, you feel like you are part of one of the scenes of the movie, though it still felt like it was a little bit made up, but little did I know that best is yet to come. ;)

We came out of minion theme and we entered "The Hogsmeade"!!!!. It was Magical.

We had everything there, we had snow in summer, we could see Hogwarts in distance, there were wizards helping kids perform magic, no-melt ice-creams, Olivander's wand store, Book store, Martha's butter beer was sold every where in wooden barrels (which I must say tasted awesome, I haven't tasted any drink like that before, and it's not real beer so even kids can enjoy), there was a Zonko's candies store with chocolate frog that had Dumbledore cards to collect. You can also see the Veela Witches from Beauxbaton's Academy of magic and students from Durmstrang Institute perform along with our Hogwarts student performing their song with singing frogs.

They had Hogwarts train with a ticket collector standing outside, The Whooping willow and the blue car stuck in whooping willow, spiders, Diagon Alley, Moving talking picture frames of all of the Hogwarts Headmasters etc etc etc. One has to go there to feel the magic. Someone put lot of thought and effort in the whole concept, that if there weren't too many muggles roaming around I would have thought it was all real and I was in Hogsmeade myself. What added to the magic was that theme park staff were all in their uniforms as per the roles they were playing and they played their roles aptly. It definitely made the whole experience much more real.

Then comes Hogwarts and the 3D ride of forbidden journey with Harry Potter, this one seriously makes you feel as if you are inside the movie with Harry flying on a broom. This is the most amazing experience I have had in my life and I have been to plenty of Amusement parks in my life so far.

There is another ride "Buckbeak's flight" which is not that great but good for kids and the Buckbeak they created looked very very real. Everytime you start the ride you bow to the mighty Buckbeak and it bows back that is when the ride starts.


Then we went for "The Mummy returns with revenge" theme park and the ride was amazing however it did not have complete 3D experience but they built the scary caves and at the end you do feel like the insects actually touch your feet. (It was scariest for me as I am super afraid of insects, especially the ones in Mummy movie which eat you alive in seconds.)

Studio 2 tour which shows you many movie tricks and it's 360-3D King Kong show is also very good but nothing beats Harry Potter experience for me as I grew up reading those thick books (And I own the whole set and I have read it at-least twice and some of the books I have read 3-4 times).

Harry Potter theme park is the total magical experience one can experience for real. It was definitely worth the money, time and effort. It was so nice that I was under the spell of the magic even after returning home, until sadly someone poked my magic bubble by commenting on my obsession with whole Harry Potter and magic :(. Well as much as it broke my bubble and brought me to reality I feel I will never forget this experience where I had a lot of fun and I must conclude it with writing a blog, which will keep the memory live for me longer than usual. :)

Kudos to the team who designed and executed Harry Potter theme, only thing I can say that it all felt real and "Magical". :)

There are other attractions as well like Jurassic park theme boat ride, Shrek, Simpsons, Water World and Transformers. We missed out on Shrek, Simpsons and Transformers due to lack of time but we had fun. However many people like the live Water World show I was not that thrilled but I cant deny the effort and energy that those actors put in there.

PS: As I said there were lot of muggles around me, I am borrowing some pictures from google and adding some of my own here, but I can assure you it looks exactly as it is visible in the pictures, and it is fun and magical. It is a must visit place and I would love to go there again. :)

Have all the fun and magic in life while you can.
Cheers.!! :):)

The 3rd Sheep

As against in middle of night, today I am blogging in the middle of the day. ;)

This thought has been lingering in my head for long and I finally decided to blog it out.

I received this story in one of the Watsapp (chat app) groups and it kind of made me think.

The story is about a missing Sheep.

It all started one lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town near Toronto, Canada.
Two school goings kids had a crazy idea.

They rounded up 3 Sheeps from neighborhood and painted the numbers 1,2 and 4 on their sides.
That night they let the Sheeps loose inside their school building.

The Sheeps wrecked havoc over the night.

Next morning, when the authorities entered the school, they could smell something was wrong.
They soon saw sheep droppings on the stairs and near the entrance and realized that some Sheeps had entered the building.

A search was immediately launched and very soon, the 3 Sheeps were found and they were numbered 1,2 and 4. But the authorities were worried where was Sheep No.3?
They spent the rest of the day looking for Sheep No.3.
Gradually there was panic and frustration.

The school declared classes off for the students for the rest of the day.
The teachers, helpers, guards, canteen staff were all busy looking for sheep No. 3, which of course was never found.

Simply because it did not exist. :\

This story tells us that those among us who in-spite of having a good life are always feeling a "lack of fulfillment" are actually looking for elusive, missing non-existent  Sheep # 3.

Whatever the area of complaint or search or dissatisfaction may be relationship, job-satisfaction, materialistic achievement, list is endless...

An absence of something is always larger than the presence of many other things.

After few days I went to have coffee with a newly acquired friend one of the evenings before leaving the city for good (which I wasn't very happy about) and we both were talking about our lives, Jobs, friends, family and relationships etc. I did not realize when the whole discussion went deeper and got more intimate. As much as I was happy to find a friend I could talk to at deeper levels, all of a sudden I realized that somewhere we were looking for 3rd sheep. Actually our problems were not that big and I include myself here as well.

I forwarded this story to her and said maybe we are looking for 3rd sheep. It also means we are having a fulfilled life, because that is why instead of being worried about the basics we are perhaps concentrating on wrong things. Think about it, if we did not have food to eat or clothes to wear or a place to live in, would we be worrying about petty things in life like how someone behaved or how they did not behave or what they said or they think. Of course not, our whole focus and energy would be on getting food on table, clothes and a place to keep us warm and protected.

That is when I realized, that at some point of time we all  look for the 3rd sheep and we have to remind ourselves and each other that we gotta stop looking for that one, because we need to realize perhaps it doesn't exist; and we must stop looking for it in every possible corner. :)

Stop looking for Sheep #3 and have worry free days and a fulfilled life ahead ...

Cheers! :)

Mediterranean Grill, Bel Red Road

Often when I go to bed early I wake up in the middle of the night and then I often have trouble going back to sleep. So if you notice closely most of my blogs say in the middle of the night. :)

So today is no different, went to bed early woke up and couldn't sleep, so I was reminiscing events of the day and this one kind of stood out.

There is this Mediterranean Grill on Bel Red Road Bellevue, Washington. I have been there thrice (today was third time).
It is kind of a small, cozy place with very good food. They say they make it all fresh and I think the freshness of ingredients kind of seeps into the taste of  food they serve too.

First time I went there, there was a lady serving the food, she was not very nice but wasn't very rude either. Second time I went with one of my colleagues and there was this guy at the counter and he was not so nice and looked like he was in scurry, I didn't see anyone waiting while we ordered (we had just entered the place), it being a small place I looked around and the crowd wasn't thick either, I thought may be he is preoccupied or something. I didn't give that much heave of thought then. Last time my colleague complained of him being rude but I thought it was just a bad day.

Today being Friday and after 2 weeks of fire fighting, late nights and dealing with multiple "Bosses" we decided to go out for lunch. My colleague said "Shall we do Mediterranean again?"
Me: ???? Again?
Her: Yheah, I didn't like the guy but I liked the food. I have decided if he doesn't smile today I wont tip him but I like the food.
Me: Okay, but I have 2 more colleagues joining us.
Her: That's okay, if its only 2 I am not in mood to socialize today unless it's you.
Me: Just 2 more girls. It would be fine lets go.

When I reached there I saw same expressions on his face (intimidating, like he has lost patience already and hey we just walked in, whats the deal with this guy). After 2 weeks of all of the things mentioned above we did not want this kind of behavior for lunch was for sure.

I knew that both of my new found colleagues had never tried Mediterranean food and my other colleague is low in energy and just like last time this guy is intimidating and in a scurry let me order first and fast as being the vegetarian I have limited options to choose from and them (all 3) being non-vegetarians had much more choices. So after I placed my order I was waiting for my 2 newly added to group colleagues struggle to order at the counter and he was being himself (a jerk in a scurry for no reason visible to us). When I observed from a distance how he was intimidating these 2 little girls fresh out of college in a new country, I couldn't help myself but tell him "Oh come on be nice, they are coming here for the first time, having Mediterranean for first time", and I also told him that my other friend standing near the door has already decided not to tip because he is being himself ...yup ooopsie daisy.
(My other friend was not happy because she felt obliged to pay tip because of my big mouth.)

His response was "I cant read minds, and its a to go place no pressure for tips." Well this is where I got tongue tied, I didn't say anything but mean while my 2 new friends could make up their minds on what they wanted to try. I knew after this its up-to him to decide either to be nice or continue being himself. Cant help it.

While we were seated and waiting for our food to arrive I thought he might as well spit in our food before serving and trust me I didn't want to think about it, I was hoping against all hopes that he didn't as he is not the one making our food. (I had seen it in some Hollywood movies).

Finally he comes with our food and a smile, he was trying to be nice when he got our food I wasn't sure if it was genuine but now that I think of it, I think he was genuinely trying to be nice. My first friend (who had to tip) asked why did you have to open your big mouth and I was like well he seemed to be a straight forward person I know that language being one myself. (I don't know some how it felt right to do so, I cant tell why?... but it did).

After that he was nice to us all and even asked if my new friends liked the food for the first time.
Before leaving I wished him to have a good day.

Now that I am thinking the first thought passed my mind was that perhaps he didn't like Asians or did not like our faces. He himself was a tall, good looking guy in a rugged way as he didn't bother to shave but carried it off pretty well. Yes we Asians esp Indians we don't have those good looking genes like others, our height, body, color and the way we dress up (not) is far from something we can say good looking or fitting in; and top it with the cherry of language barrier (often not always).

I was thinking I should have told him we may not be pretty faces to look at but we are humans we have a brain, heart, liver, kidney just like him and we have pure blood running in our veins not mud as he might have expected. I also wanted to tell him that one of my 2 new friends is so sweet that if he was a Vampire (yheah Washington state and Vampires, Werewolves kind of go hand in hand in my mind :| :) ) he could smell the sweetness in her blood from afar.

But then another thought entered my mind, I realized that he was just being himself, which makes him a jerk to others and I felt it was more like a wall to protect himself (don't know from what) but it wasn't for us, perhaps it was for himself. perhaps he was scared of something so it was his facade.
These people (jerks) are just being themselves and in the lee they become jerks to others.

I also realized that I have been accommodating his behavior all this time. It didn't affect me until I saw him being rude to others. Perhaps being close friends with one (jerk) once, I have got a little immune to people being jerks, and I knew he wasn't all that bad he was just being himself. These borderline jerks are often (not always) very good at heart inside, they can be amazing human beings if they decide to be so.

Only good thing was he took the feedback positively and if he continues serving with a smile he would perhaps cover up the fifth star missing for his restaurant in Yelp. :)

Well this blog is for him.(I don't know his name).
Cheers and serve with a smile. :)