to offer the other cheek

like all Gandhi Jayantis, this time too was a public holiday I was looking forward to: obviously for selfish reasons! This time my holiday meant leaving one day earlier to Mumbai after arriving to Pune only on Tuesday. Oh for more 3-day weeks! Like all holiday mornings I woke up at my sweet time, went through the day without much fanfare and excitement coming my way and hoped for a fitting end to it. That's when my sister tells me one of the million movie channels we have on our Set Top Box is screening Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. (I always found that odd in a paranoid sense: with the British having taken away most of our Gold and Jewels, looks like they took away our Mahatma too!) I decided to spend some time watching the movie once again and felt that this way I will pay my homage to the great soul!


Gandhi: The Movie was something I remember watching as a kid at the creche I went to. Doordarshan which was our source of 'Tube Salvation' would have the afternoon slot fixed for this movie and all of us kids at Aunt Mable's place would watch it with great interest. Back then it was just that amazing feeling to watch the history textbook come alive with the actors, props, locations, sets, costumes & lighting. A scene I can never forget is the one in which Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) is very sick from his fasting and this rugged Hindu man (Om Puri) comes up to his bedside with a sense desperation written all over his face. He asks him what must he do to absolve himself of his sin of killing a Muslim boy to avenge the death of his child. To this Gandhi replied, "Adopt a boy and raise him as your own son, but in the Muslim Faith!" That scene will never cease to amaze me for the sheer simplicity of the man's thoughts and the power those thoughts had and still have today.

When the story is of a man as towering as Gandhi, you will never run out of moments that inspire you. This time it was the time when he was in South Africa and walking on the street along with a Catholic priest when they are mocked and intimidated by local white boys. It is at that moment he says,"I think Christ meant it literally when he says 'If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek.' It is not a show of cowardice but a display of great courage to stand in the face of oppression." That thought just blew me away. How often have I run away from a circumstance thinking that it was too tough to handle without violence. But the truth is that the situation was only tough (rather impossible) to handle without courage. Our perception of courage is very different from Gandhi's. I for one, could never see courage associated with someone being beaten and flogged despite being a catholic and fully knowing the Passion of Jesus. Sure it takes guts to raise a hand and strike someone stronger than you but it takes far greater courage to just stand and be beaten in body but not in your spirit and ideology. Quoting Gandhi's lines, "They will imprison me, beat me, torture me and might even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, not my Obedience!"

It is rare to see such defiance in this day and age. We have termed such valour as 'passive resistance' and let it get lost in the annals of history. I hear analysts and historians comment on News Channels that Gandhi's Philosophies cannot be practised against terrorism. However, I think that we don't have that degree of courage that is requisite for fighting this evil. I pray though that we do find it one day for our sake, for the sake of peace, for the sake of humanity!

This Thing Called Karma

its been long since I posted something on this space. But I guess it was already decided that I would post this blog today; neither a day earlier nor later. All events of my life and yours are predecided on the basis of time and days and seasons and years and man is said to have no influence on the matter. This is what they call destiny and it is a function of this thing called karma.

Considering that I am of the Catholic Faith which frowns upon the concepts of reincarnation and destiny, it is pretty radical of me to say that I believe we do have a say in what is to happen to us in our lives and it is subject to our karma. We Catholics believe in divine intervention: that all things that happen to us are what God intended to happen to us. But I think the God who made the heavens and the earth and gave us life and free will would give us the opportunity to exercise that will and choose what we want for our lives! Karma in that context is very relevant but in a very different hue. Let me tell you how.

Jon is this very successful businessman who has offices all over the globe and is the best at what he does. Although a busy man he is deeply rooted in values and is man of faith and prayer. He has everything in life except for an obedient son. His son, Jon Jr. is this spoilt brat who squanders his father's fortunes on cars, girls and booze and does not care for the family or company. One day his son was driving home after a late night party and meets with an accident with a trailer. He was severely injured and later succumbed to his wounds.

Jon was shattered and could not believe that his only son is no more. He lost faith in God and with time became an Atheist. His business also suffered severely and many of his companies were running into losses. He filed for bankruptcy after 5 years and with the little that he got from his sold property, he started an educational scholarship program in his son's name for deserving students. 20 years later, Jim, an orphan kid from the locality won the scholarship for pursuing his higher studies and made the most of the opportunity. He stood first in his class and in 3 years started a Business of his own which was highly successful.

Now in this thread of events concerning Jon, Jon Jr. and Jim it may seem that Jim benefited from the misfortunes of Jon and his son. It may look like had Jon Jr. not died Jim would not have got the opportunity to become who he is today. However this is where I feel Karma can be redefined. Karma although is a string of acts in the series of causes and effects, in some mysterious ways, not every effect is dependent on the same cause. Jim was an honest & hardworking kid and if it was not the Jon Jr. Scholarship it would have been some other one. He would have pinnacle of success, just the route would have been different.

Another bone of contention I have with karma is the concept of past life/lives affecting the present and future life/lives. Instead I postulate the Theory of the Painter and his Masterpiece. If we are like the colors the painter uses, each of us blends and mixes into other colors, producing new ones and changing the look of the masterpiece. How could a color used by the painter on a previous painting affect the current project? This feeling of sanchita (accumulated karma) I feel is more of other's karma rubbing off onto us and vice versa.

There is this bus by which I travel every Monday from my home in Mumbai to my office in Pune. I have been commuting in that same bus for almost 1 and a half years but never felt like I should remember the bus number. Last week however, I just made a mental note of it. I did not know how it would be of use to me. 5 days later as I returned home on Friday evening I saw a bus completely smashed from the front and in a terrible state on the Expressway. Its number: same as the bus I took on Monday.

Its been 2 weeks since I thought of writing this blog and was not able to complete because I somehow could not define in my words what karma and destiny are. After that day I realized that it is a game of Jigsaw Puzzle we play with God. He lets us fix some pieces in whichever way we want and He fixes the rest of the pieces in a way that the picture of our lives becomes meaningful and one with purpose.

हिन्दी रायटिंग

dabbling with some writing in Hindi। I dunno how good/bad this is. Maybe you could read it and tell me.

दिन ... दिन जो आते हैं, आके बस यहीं से फिर चले जाते हैं।
रात ... रात जो आएगी, यह भी कुछ पलों में, फिर चली जायेगी।
मैं सवेरे की तलाश में हूँ।
एक नई सुबह की आस में हूँ।
लेकिन ... वो नई सुबह, इस अंधेरी रात के बाद ही आएगी।

पल ... यह हसीं पल, जो कभी आते हैं, यादों में बस जाते हैं।
कल ... यह अंजान कल, जो कुछ लाते हैं उसे हम जी जाते हैं।
मैं उस पल की तलाश में हूँ।
एक हसीं कल की आस में हूँ।
लेकिन ... वो सुनेरे कल, इस अंधेरे पल के बाद ही आते हैं।

Hopefully more words will follow in the days to come!

The Domino Effect

have you ever played with dominoes? If not, they are these rectangular tiles which are about the size of your thumb. The popular game played with them is to arrange them in various patterns on their edges and to topple the first domino in the series and watch them all fall over.

Life too is like a set of these dominoes. One innocuous incident could lead something else and that to something else and that could pull you right into the eye of a storm! Let me tell you about how I got thinking about this in the first place. It was 6:00am Monday morning and like every other Monday morning, I was up and awake getting ready to catch my bus ride back to Pune. Like every Monday morning I was ready by 6:45am and left my home. Now what 'usually' happens is that I go out and in a matter of 5 minutes or so I catch a rickshaw for the bus stop where the bus arrives and have a smooth 140km ride to Pune. Well, this is where the first domino topples over my otherwise 'usual' Monday. I was stranded in front of my apartment gate for about 15 minutes, waving at passengerless rickshaws as they whizzed past me like they were in a hurry to pick up the Prime Minister for a special ride. Eventually, after being rejected by 10 odd ricks, I finally get one gentleman who was ready to drop me to my desired destination.
When I alight the rick and run to the other side of the flyover, I find my bus driving away from me and I was left high and dry but not for long as it started pouring in a matter of 2 minutes.The umbrella could save me from the rain not from the situation I was in. While I was wondering what I must do next, I found 2 more fellow passengers who frequently travel to Pune joining me and being briefed about how we were deserted by the State Transport.

Was I late? Yes, from my usual timing I was behind by about 5 minutes or so but I was expecting the bus to arrive at its usual time which would mean I would catch the bus with 5 minutes to spare instead of 10. But there toppled another domino from another direction: the bus arrived 10 minutes earlier than usual! So all my calculations went for a toss and was declared late in the final analysis.

If I were to look at this situation from a Domino standpoint, I would find a completely different view of the problem. Many of the seemingly insignificant incidents started way before I got panicky about making it on time: like the bus may have arrived at the starting point 10 minutes earlier than usual, or maybe a change of driver and conductors meant the bus for once left on time from the starting point. Or it could be that school buses were on strike and many of the children were taking rickshaws for travel. Now, these are things I did not anticipate but if I were to sit and anticipate all of these things, I would have to leave an hour before the bus arrives at the bus stop! Where the Domino Effect really kicks in is where the choices you make change the course of the way the Dominoes topple.

Many years back, on a similar Monday morning I had left for school with a friend of mine as a pillion on his cycle and was returning back with him as well. That afternoon however, we encountered a pothole we normally would not have and I lost balance off his cycle and fell to the ground. To my good fortune, the truck whom we were trying to outspeed had a sensible driver and applied the breaks much before I fell off the ride. I was left with a splitting headache and a scraped forehead! Another similar incident was when I was to seek admission for 11th std. Junior College based on my SSC scores and missed most colleges by a narrow margin (in one case as narrow as 1 mark!) and finally decided to, in an emotion of utter despair, go for Diploma Engineering.

In each case what truly changed the course of the Domino Flow was the choice I made. In such situations God may seem like a really mean prankster who plays the most elaborate practical jokes on you. But the truth is that He is like this master-architect of your life whose ways and designs you have no clue about. We always fear those things we are uncertain of. We do not fear death but the its uncertain occurrence. We do not fear future but its uncertainty. But believe it or not it is this uncertainty that keeps us sane and enables us to affect change with the choices we make. Things may not always go the way want we want to but that would be like one of the characters painted on the Sistine Chapel complaining to Michelangelo that his robe should have been a little longer! The fella upstairs knows His job so we should just mind ours! If you feel like you are a victim to a divine practical joke, just laugh along with Him because he is the only one who can turn a joke into a miracle!

In hindsight every factor seems like a reason for the disaster. Of all the things I considered as a reason, the funniest I think is a point when the rickshaw driver asked me if he could relieve himself halfway to the bus stop. Now, I may have been in a hurry but I could not deny a man who came to my rescue in my hour of need his basic right of answering nature's call. It took him a minute or so to be done with it and to get his rickshaw started. It took me just that one minute to go from 'On Board' to 'On Road'! And that's the joke that got me through an otherwise aweful day with a smile on my face!

no No NO!

i was watching this ad by a famous shampoo brand which has some famous actresses violently shaking their heads and letting their tresses sway freely in the air as they said this simple 2-letter word, "No!". They say it for about 40 seconds or so and manage to hold onto our attention despite saying a word nobody wants hear! Or do they?

Its a known fact that people don't like hearing 'no' for an answer and yet they treat someone who gives them that negative response like superstars. And how often have we seen people who say yes to everything being buried under a truckload of favors unto others and having no time to live his/her own life? The response you give speaks little of your occupancy with work and volumes of your position in social circles. A person who says 'Yes' to everything is seen as a Crowd Pleaser, someone who just finished reading Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. On the other hand, a person who says 'No' all the time is seen as a Snob or an Isolated Individual who has just returned from a One Man Moon Mission and does not want to be in contact with anybody. It is a tough balancing act and it has a lot to do with what is it that you are saying 'No' to.

If it is to some favour someone is asking of you, your saying no most of the time would suggest that you are super-busy or have other important things to tend to. But watch out for whom you end up trying this on because you will not be favoured by those people in your hour of need. However, saying 'Yes' to every favor sought from you is detrimental to your health as well as you could end up living through your life helping others live their dreams without you living yours. An excellent way to look at these two kind of people is to flesh them out as Noman and Yeswoman.

Noman is a bank employee working in the Loans Section and has the Job of saying 'No' to many applications during the day (refer to the movie Yes! to understand the character better). Yeswoman lives on the other end of that street with a stagnant Personal Assistantship Job with a young entrepreneur and has the unique distinction of being a Bridesmaid for 27 weddings (refer to the movie 27 Dresses to understand the character better). Both of them led miserable lives 'coz all Noman did was refuse every opportunity of experiencing something new and all Yeswoman could do was help others have their dream weddings while she stood beside them basking in their flattery.

Both did the exact opposite of each other, yet both were not happy with their lives. One afternoon when Noman went out for a post lunch walk down the street he bumped into Yeswoman and dropped the bride's dress and cake she held in her dainty hands. He picked her up, apologized and agreed to pay for the losses. She accepted the apology and agreed with his idea. Later that week he asked her out to dinner and she joined him by giving her friend's rehearsal dinner a slip. And guess what before they knew it, their lives were slowly being transformed. In the following summer she quit her dead end job and was living her life as a successful Marriage Consultant for which she procured a loan from Noman's contact at his bank. He too progressed in his bank after taking proactive steps and promoting micro-credit. The following year, the two were planning their own wedding and were moving into a new house which the two of them had purchased from their new found careers.

So I guess it is not so much the response that matters but your feelings for a particular response. If someone comes asking you for something you don't have the time nor the inclination to do, say NO, for goodness sake, for your sake. And if you wish to do something for someone because you really want to, then just do it! If you worry about what the world will think of you if you accept/ refuse someone, let me give you the red pill of reality: the world does better than make opinions of your every action or inaction. Besides, most of the people who form this little critique world of yours are probably those who have needed or will need your favor sometime, so to hell with them!

Having said that, I don't mean that good old charity goes out the window. I think it takes a lot of planning to live a fulfilling Life and one needs to introspect on ones goals and priorities regularly to know where we are headed. The world is one Big Place and Life is one Long Story. Lets give everyone a balanced diet of Ayes and Nays to help them stay healthy!

Bits Of Paper: Who's Gonna Pick 'em Up?

every generation has a philosophy which drives it. Like our parents are driven by the philosophy of hard work and perseverance and learning and we are driven by smart work and unlearning and relearning. We often hear of our grandparents speak of the good old days when working in the fields brought them great joy and peace of mind and how our parents would complain of their 2nd shifts in factories. And now we get to hear stories of how a hard day's work on the company shop floor, working with machinery brought our folks great satisfaction and peace of mind and how that experience is hard to find in front of a computer screen! I guess we too will have our turn to tell our children of the immense pleasure and job satisfaction working on unfinished codes for a web-based application brought us compared to their voice command controlled supercomputers which writes the codes and documents for them based on the requirements they dictate to their workstations!

Every generation thus defines the boundaries of the environment in which it thrives. From the pre-Independence environment of uncertainty and abject poverty to the environment of green and white revolutions of the 70s to the technological revolution of the 90s. Each of these environments had a particular way in which the machinery of society worked. And it is funny, but I guess when people say that 'Corruption and Apathy is in our blood.' it has an element of truth in it. Because in all our generations all we see is the need to wriggle our way through life and find societal status even if it means making our principles and ideals a sacrificial lamb. Most of you reading this will feel that if principles cannot guarantee us success, then what's the point in adhering to it? That's correct. But I don't think that's the reason why man must be righteous. Righteousness is for one's own peace of mind. The world could care less if MK Gandhi were called the 'Mahatma' or if Mother Teresa is worthy of being called a 'Saint'. If they followed their principles they did so because they wanted to live a life of peace and a clear conscience. That they became a source of inspiration to the generations after them is just a positive after-effect of their piety.

And so if we wish to see 'Real Change' around us; change that is not just part of some ad campaign of a company trying to peddle its products under its banner, change that is not just some fancy slogan to create mass hysteria and a pseudo-active state of our consciousness; we need to shut up and look inside us. We need to understand that Change is not something the world needs but it is something that we need: to find our peace of mind. And our effecting it and cleaning the mess we make will define in the annals of history the true philosophy of the life and times of our generation.

When I Hit The Bucket

we may not certain about finding true love, we may not even be sure of experiencing real happiness, but death is one event we are all sure of! Yet we never seem to talk about it, or discuss it.....its too damn depressing, isn't it?

I was watching The Bucket List last night and was at first amazed at how the characters Edward and Carter handled their deaths. It was only later, as the movie progressed that I realized that the amazing part was how they handled their Life, knowing that they were going to hit the bucket very soon.

If I were to make my own bucket list this is what it would look like right now:
1. Be a Millionaire Businessman.
2. Lay foundation for a large NGO.
3. Go on an extensive tour of Europe.
4. Sing at a Jazz Bar in New York.
5. Watch a Grand Opera Performance.
6. Write a Musical Play.
7. Write a Book.

I will add more to it as time goes by! Suggest me some if you wish to!

Pray For Rain

it is 19th June and there's still no sign of the monsoon clouds. The monsoon in India has been notoriously famous for arriving well before time and catching everyone by surprise. I remember during my childhood, before School began we had to buy our 'Gum Boots' for the monsoons. But it seems the times have changed in a decade and children's schools have resumed this time around with their raincoats in their bags rather than being on them.

Something has definitely changed, it takes no freakin' degree in geology or meteorology or whatever-the-hell-logy it takes to study the science of seasons! And these signs beg of all of us to think about what's happening. Try and recall when was the last time you saw the monsoons come in so late? How often did sudden thunderstorms, cyclones and tornadoes knock the life out of cities and villages in the 80s or for that matter even in the 90s? Were the summers this hot when you were a kid? So what has changed all this?

We have a host of eco-crusaders (read environmentalists) telling us through compelling movies like The 11th Hour and An Inconvenient Truth of the impending danger lurking over us of pushing mankind to the brink of extinction due to global warming and other such factors. But who cares about what they have to say. I have been taught to live for the moment and take advantage of every single resource and person around me for my advantage. But Mother Earth, in whose bosom you and I live, has a philosophy of coexistence she strongly believes in. This is perhaps why we still haven't been swallowed up by the ground below us (or maybe she has already run out of patience with a 40% increase in earthquakes worldwide in the last 10 years).

The time had finally come for us to stop bullshitting ourselves, to stop wearing Green T-shirts and Putting of Lights for one hour in the whole damn year. It is time to stop Talking Green and Start Doing Green. It is an everyday battle we have to fight; not with multinational corporations or superpowers, but first with our conscience to do what's best for the environment and me to 'coexist'.

I received an SMS from clergyman friend of mine some days back asking us to pray for us, since God will answer our prayers. I think God has already answered our prayers for that by giving us an Opportunity to save the planet. I believe it is our turn now to claim that saving grace through our everyday decisions and clean up our mess for our Mamma Earth!

Time To Say Goodbye

ever seen a shooting star set into the horizon? Well, that is what I witnessed earlier today as I bid farewell to senior leader in Infosys. She has been in this industry for over 38 1/2 years and has seen the best and the worst times of this industry. And the one thing she said yesterday that will always remain with me is that, "Tough times don't last, tough people do. And being tough is not about not losing, it is about having the will to go on despite failures. And this will is only with those who Love what they do!"

I wonder if I sit to count the number of things I have failed at, how many of those things did I give up after encountering that failure? And out of all those things I gave up, how many of them were things I really liked doing? I guess none. Those things I really enjoyed doing are things I still do to this day: Music and Song Writing, Singing, Working on Creative Projects, being a 'Baba' and helping people with their problems. This is who I am and I can never deny, distort or destroy it!

As we watched her leave the programme, I realized there is little time left for me to discover my true potential and take advantage of it for my sake and the benefit of others. We all have to say our goodbyes sometime. All we can do is make it sweeter by doing what we love and loving what we do!

Late Night @ Kottara

it was 3.30 am and I was at my friend's place at Kottara talking to them about life, work, life @ work, work in life, friends, hobbies, and practically everything under the monsoon-cloud-covered sun! I had met my college buddies after almost a year and it felt like a crime of negligence on my part for not having kept in touch with them for so many months.

Still I kept this feeling at bay and continued to talk to them and listen to their stories as they told it to me with great fervour. And I realized something very strange, that they and I have similar problems we face at office, it is like irrespective of the geographical location and nature of the project we had the same set of a-holes ruining it for us at work! We shared notes and tips on how to handle these creatures and how to get our lives out of rut and start living again!

Life is tough everywhere, but having family close by reduces the agony of separation to some extent. I stay away from home for a little less than 5 days and I know how restless I get by that 5th day! So how much worse is their pain, they who spend 3 days travelling to get to the place they call 'home'? They stay in 3 BHKs, well furnished, stocked with chocolates and ice-creams in the refrigerator and Broadband Internet Connectivity in their bedrooms. They have carom boards and Uno Cards to play with and a television to watch. Yet they call this their 'Room' not their 'Home'. It takes something else to build a Home: love of the members who live there, care and concern for each other, a sense of sharing and a whole lot of humor and laughs. And as we sat and watched the English lose to the Dutch at a game that the British invented, we played Uno and laughed like we've never laughed before in ages all having fun at each other's expense. It was as if the din faded, everything went slow-mo and a soft instrumental music began to flow through that 'Room' transforming it into a 'Home'. We shared and ate the ice-cream from the box, gave each one a piece of chocolate and kept a count of who had how many points at the end of each game. Someone rightly said, "Home is where the Heart is!"

And that's when it became clear to me how they could live for so many months so far away from home. It was only their love for each other, their affection and concern for one another that made their house a home. I hope they carry this sense of home with them wherever they go, just as I carried it with me back home.

Behind The Sound-Proof Glass

it was so silent in there I could hear my heart-beating. Actually, it sounded more like it was throbbing for fear of what was to happen next. He told me to stay steady and not move from my mark and I so felt like the son of William Tell at that moment! Nevertheless, I tried to keep my cool, wiping my brow as I stood in that air conditioned sound-proof room waiting to sing the first few notes and then finally the moment came and went past me before I could even realize what the hell happened!

It took me a total of 15 hours to reach that recording studio located close to Mangalore City. the first 12 hours were by a Volvo Bus from Pune and these were all the hours it was supposed to take me to reach this beautiful city. But an accident on the way ensured my journey was halted abruptly at Kota, about a half hour drive from Udupi City. It was quite a shocker of an incident with the bus being violently jolted at 6 AM while its passengers were fast alseep. An oncoming bus scraped past our bus on the driver side as our adventureous man behind the wheels was overtaking a huge truck. The result was nearly catastrophic with the other bus falling into the ditch while we came to a screeching stop.

Anyways, a half hour and 2 local buses later I caught a bus to Udupi and decided to meet my granny who stayed there. Would I have met her had my bus not had this incident? I doubt I would have. I met her and had breakfast with her, met my uncles and aunts, my cousin brothers and played with my cutiepie niece.

Finally I reached my destination and began practising for the recording and boy was it tough. I thought it would be a breeze but having to sing in a particular tone and with certain expression and having to repeat the lines over and over and over again in takes and retakes knocked the wind out of me! Yet a sense of calm came over me when I entered that recording room. In a moment my life flashed before my eyes, those days of singing before guests, relatives and friends, those days of singing in a choir standing behind the microphone coz there was no space in front of it and those days when my voice was going through an identity crisis of sorts. I felt like today and every day of my life was planned by a higher force to see this day.

And I recorded, in 2 hours I managed 3 hymns and by the end of it I felt like I was on a roll and wanted to do more. It was the most enthralling experience I have had in years, an adventure of a lifetime. And for the first time I felt at home so far away from home, in the midst of what i loved most: music. Now I know that so long as I have faith in my self and my abilities I will always be safe and heard behind the sound-proof glass of life by the chief musician!

Sniffing Through Memories

a conversation with an online friend of mine got us talking about fragrances and our deep relation with them. I get a high every time I smell the first rains on the mud. Many can relate to what I mean by that. However, I am sure there are many of you who are reading this and going, "Yuck!". However, I am not here to argue about which is a superior smell and give out awards for it. I am just reminiscing the memories that each fragrance evokes for me.

Like the smell of petrol and car smoke after spending a good time vacationing in some remote village or hill station with 'clean fresh air'. Somehow, the lungs and the nostrils begin to long for them! And the smell of vanilla essence which reminds me of home, my mother and the caramel custard she makes. The smell of binding paper and new note books bring me warm memories of long gone days of school and the joy that accompanied it. The smell of corn cobs on the coal on a windy and rainy afternoon as I returned from college or the fragrance of 'masala chai' and 'kanda bhajiya' sitting there at the window sill of NELCO where I worked as a trainee. The fragrance of freshly cut grass at Infosys Mysore and exploding aromas of various cuisines at its food courts!

I think our lungs have a little memory of their own carrying a sample of each of our memorable fragrances in them and evoking those good ol' feelings long after the moment has gone past us. That explains why the scent of the woman/man we love is something we treasure most when our partners are no more. I think at times I have given too much importance to the senses of sight and sound, taste and touch. Come to think of it smell is the only sense that directly connects with our life-fuel (air) and our breath and is the reason why... mmmmm... Is that Dinner I smell?

What's That In My Eye?

it was a quiet and pleasant evening, the cool summer breeze brushing past my face and the fragrance of the rains that were to come lingering somewhere inside it; when all of a sudden! OW! I felt a sharp sting in my eye and a surging pain coursing through my being! For a moment I lost all track of space and sense and reached for the ailing organ to rub the anguish out of it. But the more I seemed to struggle with it, the worse it seemed to get!

Out of natural instincts I rushed to my mother for help and remedy. She tried to bring me relief by blowing a whiff of air into my eye so as to dislodge the alien matter out of it. However, the maternal rescue proved to be futile as the incorrigible invader seemed to be nestled firmly in there. Noticing her struggling with my eye, many other onlookers came forward to offer help: some with water to splash others with a hot towel to dab.

Finally it took the hand of a father to bring a sense of calm to my eye. He violently splashed water into the sore eye and it felt like the worst was over."Is it gone?", he enquired. I nodded in affirmation although I did complain of a burning sensation that the whole exercise left me with. They all speculated it must have been an insect that must have been there and its body fluid that was causing it. Then as I walked back towards everyone, one gentleman said, "You should let it be as it is. The eye will flush it out on its own!"

I did not know what sense that made since he ordeal seemed to have finished by then. But it was only 2 hours later when a little dead Fly was 'flushed' of my eye that I realized what he meant. Often in life too I struggle with problems that are beyond my sight and think my struggle with them will get me out of them. But it is silently enduring through it while being calm and composed that would have seen me through those storms.

And, yes, the burning stops finally and I am at peace!

Looking For Adventure

hmm.... Seems like a good place to start looking for adrenaline-pumped adventure; in front of your desktop at the sleepy hours of the afternoon with all the people around you working their asses off while I sit to blog!
Somehow adventure always seems to have eluded me or so I thought. Until a long time friend of mine told me something that made me realize it was the other way around. She said, "fun never happens to you! you make it happen!"

And it dawned on me that I seldom take the first step to anything that is remotely fun. It's either my friends, my folks, my colleagues or classmates who've decided for me what fun I should be part of and what I shouldn't.

Maybe coz I felt that these things are inconsequential in the greater scheme of things and it is best left to others to decide on. But as it turns out, life happens to be a series of adventures/misadventures you wish to embark upon or be challenged by. And it is not just in the living of the adventure but also in the choosing of your own adventure that makes you fun/dull.

So as I reopen my Blog account, I ask myself this philosophical question: When will I make fun 'happen' for me?