Excerpt from the Speech given by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis.

Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously . Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends . Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

"Don't be serious, be sincere."

Things I Hate About Everyone

Things I Hate About Everyone

1. People who point at their wrist asking for the time... I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours?

2. People who are willing to get off their a** to search the entire room for the TV remote because they refuse to walk to the TV and change the channel manually.

3. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Damn Right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

5. When people say while watching a film, "did ya see that?" No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor!

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?"... Didn't give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn't be new.

8. When people say "life is short". What the hell??? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!!! What can you do thats longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?" If the bus came, would I be standing here???

RULES FOR BEING HUMAN

1. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY.  You many like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.  2. YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS.  You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called LIFE. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.  3. THERE ARE NO MISTAKES ONLY LESSONS.  Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed: experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".  4. A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL LEARNED.  A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go to the next lesson.  5. LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END.  There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.  6. "THERE" IS NO BETTER THAN "HERE".  When your "there" has become a "here" you will only obtain another "there" that will again look like "here".  7. OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRRORS OF YOU.  You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects some thing you love or hate about yourself.  8. WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU.  You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.  9. YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE OF YOU.  The answers to LIFE's question lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.  10. YOU WILL FORGET ALL OF THIS.  11. YOU CAN REMEMBER IT WHENEVER YOU WANT.  From "Rules for Being Human" by Cherie Carter Scott