Introduction...!!!
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
We all have heard, read and in fact; at times practiced many beautiful life changing quotes. So many books on motivation, self-help, self-improvement, self-management, positive psychology and attitude towards life exist in a modern reader’s world. We are lucky that we have all the worldly wisdom and knowledge coming from great classic sources like the Aristotle to the contemporary legends like A.P.J Abdul kalam well preserved in our libraries. They are solely made for those intellectual sapiosexual minds whose hunger for knowledge, self-awareness and the search for a sense of meaning are commendable.
Isn’t it a beauty of written communication that the actual sense of anything is created within the mind of the reader? It is the interpretation made by the sensible reader which adds so much of meaning and value to a few words written from the other side. The writer writes a story but the reader does the decisive job of reading things between the lines.
Anyways my purpose of writing this so called book is not to appreciate the bond and relationship which we are going to establish by this platform but my first intend is to share with you what the hell is this Hao attitude- a new fever in the young what-app /fb generation? Is it a naive flavor in the market? A viral idea? A psychological disorder?
So, before we proceed towards understanding the concept of “Hao-logy” I need to make a kind request. This stuff is for those who are non-judgmental at least to some extent, open-minded, visionaries, creativity lovers and those who are fond of living
If you are stereotypical, orthodox, and rigid or may be too settled to dare to experiment, I suppose it would be difficult to relate with Hao- bajji. The Hao-logy is written for those who have experienced the invisible fact that your heart has a mind of its own and your mind has a heart of its own. Human life is full of philosophies, beliefs, values and ideas. Accepting a new idea can bring a change in our outlook and if not any change than at least a modest awareness.
Psychology defines attitude as a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person or situation. In simple words it is a settled way of thinking or feeling about anything thus making an impact on our choice of action. The favorable or unfavorable notion which we create about any person, place, thing etc depends upon our attitude towards them.
Philosophy is the aesthetic and mysterious art which talks about the theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behavior. Philosophy is the mother of psychology; psychology which is the scientific study of human behavior was derived from philosophy. Human behavior is such a vast and complicated subject that merely anything and everything related to our lives can be accommodated in it.
The Hao attitude is more or less a distant cousin of positive attitude, warrior attitude, minimalist philosophy, hippy living etc etc. It is an ideology- a simple way of living, an innovative way of thinking, a creative outlook towards life. If you are able to relate with it you will call it delightful, if you cannot connect with it, it is an obvious blunder. So, my Hao attitude says to try my best to share the true magic of the Hao-concept but be mentally prepared for the worst and thus I call it as a story full of blunders, havocs and nonsense.
Before we begin the chapter on hao attitude, first let’s imbibe the importance of ideology in our mind.
In very short and simple terms, our opinion and beliefs play a crucial role in formulation of our personality. Our personality is nothing but our individuality. Individuality is all about a person’s beliefs, attitude, thoughts, feelings, values, motives, and outlook. It includes everything from his self concept to his thoughts about XYZ subject, from his physical appearance to his unconscious motives, from his past experiences to his future aspirations. My individuality matters for me because it gives a deep meaning to my existence. Highly practiced psychological framework; Cognitive Behavior theory says thoughts are very important, they affect the way we act and feel. David D. Burns in his fabulous book on cognitive therapy- “Feeling good” explains that our thoughts give rise to our emotions. To be more specific- thoughts, actions and emotions impact each other simultaneously. My thoughts will influence my emotions, my emotions will influence my deeds, my deeds will influence the way I feel and think. Just like a relay race where the performance of one runner affects the overall group performance.
With the advent of time we become what we continuously strive for and hence attitude matters. The attitude which we carry will affect all the definitions, meanings, interpretation we are going to give to our situations, surrounding and even to our own individuality. Our reaction towards the outer world is a reflection of the situation within our inner self. World appears a happy place when you are happy and the same planet becomes a tragic place the day you feel sad.
“We don’t see Things as they are; we see them as we are”.
Every place has its own USP; a unique trait which becomes its identity. In the language of art one can say it as a beautiful personification of a particular city. Psychology is in the air of human existence; we not only define people on the basis of their positive or negative qualities but we don’t even spare cities, routes, monuments and other living beings. As if human were born to give meaning to every creation of God. Our brain works constantly in a restless fashion, hungry to define everything it sees, tastes, smells, touches or feels.
Beginning with the incredible India were states and cities are recognized with their unique identities such as Uttarakhand- Dev Bhumi (Land of the Gods) , Madhya Pradesh- the heart of India, Andhra Pradesh- the rice bowl of India, Udaipur- Venice of East, Mussorrie- the queen of hills. This USP giving idea is not restricted to Indian cities only we all know how New York, Paris, Milan and London- are identified as the “Big Four” fashion capitals of the world.
A city in India, to be specific in Madhya Pradesh; identified with - 0731, MP 09, Poha jalebi (a combination of two dishes best served in the city), Rajwada, Lalbagh,Bada Ganapati (heritage monuments) . I am talking about Indore- the mother of Hao attitude. The birthplace of my favorite Bollywood star; the 100 crores fame celebrity, the one who rules millions of Indian hearts- Salman Khan. It is here were the hao attitude is originated.
Hao is a word of Hindi language rather it is a regional slang particular to the city of Indore. We all know how differently yes is said in English language- yaa, yeah, yup, yoo, okay, k… are some of its basic versions. In Hindi the literal word for yes is Haan and Hao is a slang synonym of Haan but it is far more different than other synonyms of yes.
It is not a simple synonym. If we start considering Hao as a replacement of yes we are basically underestimating the potential and power of this 3 letter word- Hao. Hao is like our superman, it is similar to many gallant characters played by our Salman khan. If you don’t know who is Salman you may compare our Hao with Vin diesel; the handsome, dashing Hollywood star.
Considering Hao as superman for a while, if you go by the superficial looks, he seems like a man well groomed and dressed fancily in that blue-red shinning suit. At this point, the very moment when you accepted him as a fancily dressed dude you underestimate all his supernatural powers, abilities and capacities. Problem with generalization is it results in overlooking of many subtle yet valuable aspects. Generalization is not good for the health of the society; it brings judgmental rigidity with it. Intelligent people formulate a perception but not a much generalized perception; after all they are intellectual people and not birds of a feather meant to flock together.
The Hao attitude doesn’t mean the attitude to say ‘yes’ to every situation, not at all. It is a wrong interpretation; generalization of the term rather only a narrow-view of it. It can be a dimension of it but if one observes closely and understand the insight behind it, one will be amazed to see the way in which the magical word ‘hao’ is used in varied situations, applied on different people and circumstances. The word Hao is used and depicted so differently that its understanding is equally poles apart. Hao altogether changes the meaning of anything. It is a small little word, which people use without even a sense of awareness of its potential. The way we may apply this word in our life and the benefits which we can earn out of it makes it so unique.
Hao- a layman word; which superficially appears so trivial as if it is meant to be underestimated by the kings of vocabulary and language expertise .If observed and analyzed closely with an innovative bend of mind becomes a concept , an ideology and a philosophy. A beautiful quote says there is nothing uninteresting; there are only uninterested people. Thus the understanding and application part of ‘Hao’ depends on the impression it makes in our minds, the emotion it creates in our hearts, the interest it generates in our senses and the way it touches our soul.