A Little Light on DIYA
Have you ever woken up in the morning and wondered if you could have a ‘Bible of Life’ to accompany your cuppa? That is, a set of tenets on how to deal with everyday life, its surprises, dispositions and disappointments?
Have you ever wondered that to err is human but to be human our errors must be minimum? In other words, do you want to change the way you think, say and do, to minimize relationship tension, and let a contemporary and cool teacher help you?
How does a shift in thinking patterns lead to world peace? From time to time, you must have craved the honest opinion of someone that has dabbled in the biology, evolution and psychology of life and used candid and expressive language to bring forth her vitality.
Have you fancied music to be your soulful element and a medium you might like to put to greater use but not sure exactly how? Do you want to undergo a mental and emotional catharsis? Do you ever wonder where a person gets her strength, conviction, uniqueness, ambition and unbridled optimism from?
Well, to figure all this out and more, you’ve knocked on the right door… DIYA is a conglomeration of ‘posts’ that were conceptualized and designed by me and shared on Facebook with my friends.
These posts began as mini-discourses, spontaneous responses to the intuitive question “What’s on your mind.” They made their rudimentary beginnings in 2008 or so, as an impulsive hobby or ‘time pass’ of mine. As I was first adapting to social media, I saw many people upload pictures, paste links, a news item or sundry comments to others’ posts. I had an urge to contribute too, but wanted to be original, funny, pulpy and intense.
Using my skills of in-depth analyses, cogency, candor and humor, I have delivered my observations and reflections of every day and every year happenings, the past, the present, the future and everything in between. Since their inception, my posts have evolved in number and size. Earlier they were just a couple of sporadic, casual sentences, both in content and style, and now they may contain catchy yet detailed breakdown of complex phenomena and newer clues to unresearched topics, appearing in high frequency.
These posts were initially meant only for the Facebook community; I wrote solely for the information and entertainment of my ‘friends.’ But not too long ago, when I noticed that the posts had transformed into a huge mass of about 200 or more independent axioms, it made sense to tie them together and present them to the wider public in the form of a book. And hence we made DIYA.
So, who am I reaching out to? My innocence still wants me to believe that it is the 283 friends that I have accrued on Facebook over time; some of who I chat with occasionally, a fraction that ‘like’ my comments, folks who send me birthday wishes and hordes of other silent admirers — either way, more numerous than the friends I have in ‘real’ life! But as they spread geographically and percolate different sections of society, I would like to see the whole-wide-world being impacted by my views. This is not just a book per se; it is a hybrid between a self-help manual and a vision for a better world.
Wound up in the web of everyday life, we are often unsure of our actions and reactions. I give motivational wisdom and accessible tools to help reconsider pathological thoughts, normalize chaos and transform lives. I have also raised my voice against stigma, dogma and discrimination. I have conceived positive thinking, calm emotions and empathy, as
well as hope, patience and faith as tangible goals. As you browse through, you are sure to find a distinct similarity to events and experiences in your own life.
My style is conversational, as though I’m talking directly to you. You will often laugh out loud and also learn to exercise your minds, tease out arguments, use metaphors and connect to bigger pictures and dreams. For those who are easily frustrated by volume and verbiage, I sure hope these posts will pack a powerful punch in bite-sized portions.
DIYA is just short of a real-life memoir; it is my heart-out about some very tough operational impediments that I have faced growing up, how I untangled my way through them, and the incredible theories that I proposed as a result. I appreciate the need to change our world, and my approach is poetic, satiric, yet sincere. At a glance it might attract a philosopher, psychologist or linguist seeking intellectual karma, but from a broader perspective it hopes to benefit fun-loving students and learners of life.
That said, this is not a traditional book that is read cover to cover at one go. Every post has a lot to say and goes a long way in tweaking one’s thoughts. Change takes time. Our minds are palpable and need practice just like peeling the perfect potato. In your journey through DIYA, I wish that you keep an open book and an open mind. My ideas are riginal, have been tried and tested, and they work! There is no obstacle that one cannot unblock, once you follow my guidelines.
So what gives me the authority to say what I say? DIYA is, in many ways, an anecdotage of several instances from my life and my observations of the world around me. It is also an illustration of how people fail to deliver appropriate resolutions to inappropriate problems. As a young adult, some people’s comments have hurt me and pushed me to uncomfortable corners in ways more than one, creating recurring themes in my mind. I strongly felt that snobbish, mean and sarcastic people had no business to be that way. I despised the superiority that wealth, appearance, geographical location, caste, type of education or race create.
Even today, a good section of our children and adolescents encounter what my peers and I did many years ago. Adults, too, struggle from a lack of humanness and humaneness and crave to achieve balance in life. In addition, the medically and socially underserved ache for unbiased attention. As a voluntary caregiver, I have noted that whether you are an elderly with Alzheimer’s, a school dropout teenager, a kid from the slums, a child with autism, or a young adult with a learning disability, you could benefit from benign and considerate communication. In our collective quest to become better people and a better planet, we therefore needed answers…
After years of rigorous mental research and practice, I now offer solutions. Solutions that have not only benefited me, but will also aid others in the years to come. I have taken the care and credence to understand what it is that bothers people’s minds. Age-old principles of behavioral sciences, sociology and spirituality are very much attainable within the realm of human mind. Views can change, people can change and the world can change.
I have an inherent, unshakeable faith in the power of the positive. Having crossed barriers and continents, my perspective is eclectic and cool in nature. Music has had a great influence on me. I have discerned the interplay between rhythm and lyrics of eastern and western melodies, and appreciate how transparent and therapeutic their combination is. I also enjoy quality conversations, and am drawn to different levels as I perceive words with a deeper sense of appreciation and insight. Over the years, I have learned the art of living, can quickly adapt to changes and am less inhibited by negative thoughts or conundrums.
DIYA is my dream and my beacon. I aspire to bring character and organization to people’s thoughts and actions. I wish to see a world where we interact with each other in a suave and friendly manner without feeling the need for heated emotional egress. I would love to live in a world where people are accountable for their words and actions without causing harm to others. It’s all part of the game.
DIYA can be a success if we all chip away and create awareness and make small and significant changes. Bigger and better transformations will naturally follow.
Come and seek the light for yourself!
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About the Author:
Born in Mumbai, Aruna Gurumurthy lived in different parts of India before she crossed barriers and continents to attend graduate school in Amherst, MA. She has worked as a medical researcher at Duke University, University of North Carolina and University of California, Berkeley. Her research scholarship has been in many diverse medical fields, including orthopedics, functional GI, breast cancer, craniofacial genomics and community psychiatry.
Aruna cares for female literacy, education of slum children, elderly with Alzheimer’s, young adults with learning disability and emancipation of school dropout teenagers. She believes that true change can happen when one immerses oneself in the community and empathizes with others’ minds.
Aruna lives with her husband and toddler daughter in Chapel Hill, NC. She enjoys watching basketball, American football and more recently, golf. She has an avid ear for music of all hues and likes lap swimming.
DIYA is Aruna’s first book.
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