A Tranquil Prayer...

Merry waves.  Starry night.

Sparkling sand. Full-moon on right.

Serenity. Breeze around.

Silence is the only sound.

To The Father, humble requests

Of only two lasting bequests

That every star softly sings

One is roots, the other wings.

When Rain's At It's Best...!!!

Being blessed with April rains is a relatively new trend, courtesy Global Warming, but rains have always had an element of unquestionable acceptance about them. Rains are the drizzling reminders that heavens are ceaselessly showering their limitless blessings upon us, and which leave everything on our planet awash and anew. Whatever the time of the day, they drift the soaking souls into a whole new territory, mentally, emotionally and even geographically. No matter where one is, the drift is absolute and instant. Rains are just always welcome.

Be it the 6am shower, when the open windows usher in the most intoxicating incense of the freshly bathed Mother Earth, as if returning after her early dawn’s offerings to the Almighty.

Or the mid-day showers, when nothing on this planet, living or still, seems more beautiful and invigorating than the cheerful laughter of those tiny-tots returning from school, splashed all over with the semi-solidified subcutaneous layer of the earth. Floating paper boats, they are least aware of realizing their privilege of having drapes for their slender silhouettes and least bothered about catching a cold. Even if their mums shout their lungs out (though secretly yearning to be a part of them, then and there)!

Or be it at 4pm with ‘chai’-the ultimate Indian delicacy and steaming hot ‘pakodas’ (shove health, fitness and nutrition in the closet for the moment), the fragrance of mint, garden-fresh coriander, ginger and basil filling the air, as each member of the family recoils to his/her original self, after the hectic day at school, college, office or kitchen, content and aware of the blessings of life and elderly ones.

Or be it at 7pm, when young hearts beat rhythmically with the dribble in the basket-ball court.

Or be it during the pre-midnight hours, when the curtain flutters and brings the slightest drizzle in, as the bed-side lamp emanates its exotic radiance and the aroma of coffee revitalizes the senses and reimburses the emotional quotient as eyes scan and fingers flip through the pages of the latest bestseller by your favourite author.

In or out, now or later, here, there, everywhere, rains have always played the role of ‘soul-cleanser’, carrying one’s spirits into non-dual timelessness. With them around, one of nature’s most unassailable laws – that time just moves forward and never recedes – loses its vitality. It is in the rains that everything: the greens, browns and blues revert to unbridled, fresh childhood! And as it is, it is now that I simply want to break-free, as the kid in me just refuses to grow up, exactly the way it longs to get soaked to the soul!

A lesson well-learnt...

About a couple of years ago, when dad was posted in Dhule, Maharashtra, he often had to visit Mumbai for official meetings. The nearest airport was at Aurangabad, and he often had to take the early morning flights. Being a religious soul,  he missed no opportunity to visit the ‘jyotirling’ that is famously located there. On one such trip this incident happened, which he narrated a few days back.

One morning, on his way out of the temple, a teenager boy approached him as he was moving towards his SUV.  Inching closer, the boy said, ‘Sir, I am a student of 10^th standard and  need some money to buy books’. My dad is a thorough philanthropist and is ever ready to help people ‘who want to help themselves’ as he always puts it. “Hum to sirf zariya hain. Jo unki kismat me  hai, unhe zaroor milega” (We’re just means, they’ll definitely get what is in their fate) is what my mom adds. And my parents strongly feel the pleasures in ‘giving’. So taking it as another god-gifted opportunity to help a little child, my dad asked him to sit in the car and took him to a nearby book store. ‘When I looked at him”,dad said,”I was reminded of Viviyan (my younger brother). This boy would also be somebody’s son, probably of a father who wasn’t as fortunate as me to be able to provide his son with the books he needed for a brighter future.” From the shop, dad bought him all the books he asked for, notebooks and even other stationery. The boy thanked him and my dad left for the airport, feeling happy and content.

A few weeks later, dad had to again board the same flight at the same time. As he went about his ritual of visiting the temple,  the same boy approached him again while he was coming out. Now, my dad has photographic memory which neither was this kid aware of, nor did he himself possess. Dad immediately recognized the boy but before any other thoughts could register or process, with utter confidence this little lad started off with the same 10^th standard story, AGAIN!!!  My dad caught him and reprimanded,’a few days earlier I’d got you all those books and stationery, where are they?’ The boy struggled to release himself and finally managed to run away. 

Words probably can’t describe how violated dad would have felt.

After that, dad paid several visits to the same temple before boarding the same flight at the same time of the day, but never met that kid again.

After hearing this incident, I could not help but wonder, under whose “able guidance” was this kid actually working. [Most probable chance is that the kid(or his ‘supervisor’) would have resold the books and other stationery at silly discounts (may be to the same book store)and ‘ate, puffed and drank’ and the money was gone!]  Was this kid orphaned by fate or was it some cruel joke of destiny that had made him a subject, turning him out into someone he’s started to enjoy being! Did the child even understand the dynamics of this universe at work-that he’d be precisely and accurately awarded with whatever he was giving to this world: treachery, mistrust  and deceit.  Or may be this was all absolute non-sense for a child whose only concern was to attend to a growling stomach and fight for survival-no matter however! Who was  at fault? Better still, who was suffering because of this fault? Would he ever think twice before helping any such kid again, I asked dad. “When we stumble while walking, we neither stop walking, nor do we stop treading the same path. But we learn to be more careful and attentive and start wearing the right shoes. There are always lessons to learn. I have already started browsing websites to learn the ‘art of face-reading’.” was his reply.

HoW iS It mEanT tO Be?

What is the best way to get the best out of a person/relationship/colleague/subordinate/child? Is it by constant dismissal so that the concerned person does not go overboard with a profound sense of achievement and stop working hard to create better results in future? Or is it by praising them, giving them incentives and celebrating their accomplishments?

Modern philosophy tells us that praising in the right quantity and at the right time energizes anybody beyond imagination and almost always propels for better next attempts.

I am a QA (Quality Analyst) in a software firm. I get paid to catch defects or ‘bugs’ as we call them in the codes that our developers script so that the product or service we deliver our clients becomes a quality delivery and as risk-free as possible. I am supposed to let no defect or error go undetected and eventually unresolved under my nose. When I OK a product, the product has to be Ok! Thereby, my efficiency is calculated in terms of the number of valid defects I sniff against the total bugs detected by me. But in this ‘professional’ case also, I’m never expected to deliver 100% efficiency. This is for the sole reason that under the pressure to perform cent percent, at some point of time I might be frightened to even log a defect. This would, without a doubt, affect my performance on the work front. And no organization would want their employees to work with a monkey on their shoulders (a very big one in this case!) Doesn’t the case remain painfully similar on the personal front too?

People extremely close and special to me want to focus completely on the mistakes I commit for the only major reason to make me better and better by the day. But I crave for a single word of appreciation, a single pat on my back for a single, any job well done. I work hard and harder that may be this time, if I am not praised, at least I won’t disappoint anyone. But, as they say, when you are hungry, all you see is food, all you smell is food, all you listen about is food! I feel the same way. That if people have accepted me as wrong, no matter what I do (or I don’t) I will always remain at the receiving end.

And this in turn has made me lose my self-confidence. I am now actually scared to do anything. Because I fear that whatever I do, I’ll land myself in hot soup. My desire to take initiatives, risks and to be obstinate about issues I feel strongly about is diminishing exponentially by the day. And this further drops me in hotter soup for being ‘disinterested, inactive, killjoy and pessimist’. The trouble is intensified because of the sense of ‘nothingness’ and ‘helplessness’ I fight with. Deep inside me. Every day. Every moment. I know I am not what I am being considered to be, I want to keep my point, fight it out, but cannot, because some huge arbit baggage of my past always, always keeps me from defending myself.

I keep hunting for inspirations, keep pulling myself together, bringing to practice all self-motivation techniques I know of, but when a wound keeps getting wounded, doesn’t it take simply too long to recover…?

But I have promises I sometime made to myself that I need to keep up, an image I have of myself that I have to live up to and a desire to present to this world the real character of substance that I always have been, inspite of all layers on me. 

And I’m sure that day shall dawn soon when this world will see me the way it is actually meant to be!!

My INSPIRED Wish...

Little deeds of kindness
 Little words of love
  Can make this world a paradise
   like the heaven above


For hands that help are holier than lips that pray
 If I live for the cause of mercy, forever in hearts I shall stay
  God gave me all that was meant for me
   so, when I reach out and make others full
    Is one way I can add meaning to
     and make life more beautiful


So let me be the disciple of love
 And let love take over all sorrows and woes
  Allow me to celebrate life
   Till my soul departs and goes...

New Beginnings..

Its amazing how life takes U-Turns! From the deepest lanes of nothingness, suddenly, so much pops out - like the Pandora's box! For good or very good is left for the times to decide, but certainly for the better. We learn, unlearn, re-learn and life goes on. Every moment spinning a new story, creating a newer milestone in the journey called life. One of the biggest lessons I learnt is that you and you alone are the only one responsible for whatever's happening to and with you.
sO tAkE cHaRge nOw!!!

See you soon...