Two tales

Death Certificate

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She woke up thinking, 'Aah I overslept!'
He enters the room and asks, 'Where is our Mom's death certificate?'
She goes back to sleep feeling 'Wish the last twenty years were a dream!'

Midnight gift 

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She was used to folding his clothes and arranging his wardrobe. 
Forty days later when she did that again, he did not like it! 
'I have gotten used to arranging things my way', he said. 
It sadden her for a minute and then slowly her heart smiled knowing that he is going to be just fine without her!
And out he comes from his room with a beautiful pink sari which he got as a gift from Kerela :) and then he almost refuses to receive the chikan black kurta which she got for him, saying, 'I told you not to get me anything!!'

कुछ बातें उन लहरों की...

पिछले रविवार की शाम एक दोस्त के साथ हम समुन्दर से मिलने गए थे|

इतना विशाल समुन्दर, वोह लहर , वोह किनारा एक अजीब सा सुकून दिला रहे थे मेरे दिल को |  

जब उन लहरों की तरफ देखा तोह ऐसा लगा, ये लहरें भी कितनी अजीब है...हर एक लहर कितनी उमंग और हौसले के साथ  किनारे की और अपना सफर तैय करती है, येह जानते हुए भी के जैसे ही वोह किनारे से मिलेगी, उसका अपना अस्तित्व मीट जायेगा | फिर भी हर बार नयी लहर उसी शिद्दत के साथ जनम लेती है और उसी तरंग के साथ आगे बढ़ती है |

नजाने किसकी तलाश है उसे, समुन्दर की अस्थिरता या किनारे की स्थिरता की |   

या शायद वे तोह सिर्फ अपना धर्मं निभा रही है...हर एक पल में संपूर्ण है, ना अपने किसी आकर से लगाव और नाही किसी रूप से नफरत |  

और अभी मुझे यही लगता है, की कितनी अजीब है यह लहरें लेकिन इसी लिए शायद दिल के करीब है यह लहरें| 

When I shared this with my friend, he remembered and shared this paragraph he read in a book a while ago - 

"Two waves in the ocean are talking to each other. The front wave tells the second that it's frightened because it is about to crash into the shore and cease to exist. But the second wave shows no fear. It explains to the first: "You are frightened because you think you are a wave; I am not frightened because know I am part of the ocean." -- Daniel Gottlieb in Letters to Sam

And as I read this, I remembered something I wrote about 3 years ago,

Hear what the waves are saying, each wave exclaims with joy as it unites with a shore, touches the sand and in moments there is sheer silence as it goes back with the sea, ready to come back in another form, to celebrate yet another unification with the shore :-)

To a beautiful, mysterious wonder of waves!

(P.S. - हिंदी में अपने विचारो को रखनेकी एक बहोत ही मामूली सी इस कोशिश में अगर कुछ भाषा या व्याकरण की गलती हो तोह माफ़ी :-) )

I, You and the place called Society...

"Maybe you are searching among branches for what only appears in the roots." – Rumi

The quote summed up everything that I have been thinking of since a long long time!

These days with any social issue or a problem, my mind keeps thinking about ‘the beyond what eyes can see or the ears can hear!’

With the latest increase in the media reporting of crimes against women particularly in our capital city, it makes me think of how a crime in our society is looked at.

Society!! Together we form a society I believe…the people, the environment, the birds and every living being on this planet earth. And movement of any being, happening of any incidence is a result of settings, contexts, situations co-created by the world around us…the society we live in!

I wonder then; why and how can a crime be looked at in isolation?

Hang him to death…imprison her to life, when we say this for someone who has committed a crime; do we realize that with every criminal being hanged, a part of society dies… with every criminal being imprisoned for life, a part of society’s soul is caged!! For some it’s a fair call, for they might say it was a rotten part which had to meet its destiny that way. But I ask, was it a bad part from the birth; was there nothing about that part which was ever good??

My inherent belief in the goodness was shaken more than once in past six months and I experienced that every time I walked into a space with a fear in my heart and a doubt in my mind, the world outside just mirrored my inner space. And right then I had a choice, to feed into my fear and nurture my doubt or regain my faith! As I still sometimes struggle in regaining my faith I ask myself, is faith alone going to be enough?

More often than once when I hear an incidence of a crime, my mind goes out to the person who has committed it. What is it that led him/ her to this situation? What must have been his / her life experiences? How did I as a society influenced his choices?

How is it that we have reached here…at a place where the society has more of gadgets than human relations, human beings interacts more with machines than with other human beings, the families are becoming more and more nuclear in nature and the tree of values turning frail day after day. How did we come to a day where people are afraid of passing a smile to a stranger for who knows he might be the next serial killer or the rapist we see on television?  

How did we fill our hearts with so much insecurity that the hope and the faith are struggling to find its way in?

It is this negative spirit or influence that all of us carry at one time or another that influences one among us, probably the one with the least social and emotional support, someone who absorbs all the negativity and then channelize it through a crime. That someone is a product of society as much as you and I are!!

I am not trying to defend that someone or by no means undermining the intensity of the crime and the gravity of the issue but I am attempting to connect the dots because after all we are all connected in this web of life, whether we like it or not!!

So what is the root cause and how do we address it? Well at least for the active party to the crime i.e the criminal, there is a legal system in place, which evolves with the society’s evolution and tries to find deterrents to the crimes. But where is the system to find such solutions or deterrents for the passive party to the crime…for you, me, for the society?? I wonder why such a difference in treating two different criminals??

I have never been a big fan of revolutions, although there have been some life changing revolutions that both our country and the planet earth have experienced before; to me they always create a society of followers!! And this for me is the root cause of any evil on this land…that we are not thinking or are not ready to think on our own, for ourselves, to become aware of our choices, of our beliefs, our influences on others, to take responsibility of it and to have the courage to act and live with them every day of our life!

I get this strong intuition that we are headed that way…to a place where every individual is an aware and a conscious, awaken soul, a place where every individual is a rebel and a society which is rebellion! And may be this transformation will look beyond branches, at the roots with naked eyes and courageous hearts, for a society which is truly ONE!!

A Precious day in Life :)

There are lot of things in our life that we do not have control over...but what we have control over is kindness, forgiveness, fresh starts, second chances... because nothing makes this world a more beautiful place that Love...the love that you feel, the love that you receive, the love that you give...Love of any form gives hope and hope never come alone...it always gets dreams along :) :) Happy loving, happy hoping and happy dreaming :)

Seeking Kindness - On a Diwali Morning!

A Diwali morning...

As soon as I woke up I was busy doing things that I do every Diwali morning...cleaning, decorating the house, putting things nicely. After a couple of hours of doing all this when I was about to take a shower, my brother woke up. In few minutes he & I realized that something went wrong whiles I was filling our water tank in the morning and that we don't have enough water to use during the day.

Since it was the first thing he had to face in the morning he got a little irritated and said as to why was I not being careful as we have had similar instances in the past. Suddenly, the peace & harmony within me was disturbed :( A moment or two of extreme anxiety & worry rushed in...but amid this a voice within me said - Lets try!

So I picked up the phone and dialed the number of our building security. I was extremely positive & hopeful and a part of me was seeking kindness, it wanted the voice on the other side to say 'that's not a problem, we will get the building water tank tap open for you right away' but instead...our old watchman uncle said ' There is no water. From where will I give you water' . To avoid further conversation, he passed on the number of Society's new Secretary. As he is a recently elected secretary, I had never interacted with him before!

So I here I was, dialing a number of a complete stranger, on the morning of Diwali, with a hope for a small miracle!

What followed next was this beautiful, most genuine conversation where I felt warm sharing my worry and anxiety with a complete stranger! I felt I was being listened to...that my concern mattered to him. He was honest enough in saying that if there is water in the building tank, I will get it for you AND he did :) :)

And the very next moment the peace & harmony within me was restored, this time with a broad smile on my face for receiving such a beautiful Diwali gift - for receiving Kindness :) :)

Mysterious day and a magical evening!!!

It’s been a day of emotions. Few pleasant and comforting emotions and many discomforting, disturbing emotions. Throughout the day, I felt dead, unable to feel my heart beats; unable to feel myself…was just feeling very disconnected and lost!

And then…suddenly I looked outside the window…I saw beautiful, big milky clouds…some part of clear blue sky and golden leaves and it brought a big smile on my face. Suddenly I could feel my heart, I knew what was making me happy…I could feel the blood running through my veins…I felt ALIVE :-)

I just had the most magical evening :-) through out the evening; I sat by my window and saw the live show of the light and shadow as the clouds and the Sun dance their way through the evening. It was mesmerizing to see the clouds changing its colors from white to yellow to pink to purple to orange!! Since I could not see the Sun or its rays, it was all the more mysterious for me. It felt as if with the blink of my eye, the clouds were changing the colors.

Alas, the Sun set and it became dark!

I did not want this evening to end…I did not want the magic show to end…I felt like dancing, singing in a joy, in a celebration of Life. Feeling immense gratitude for all the beautiful souls around me for making my life so colorful, for making it a celebration every day J

This Moment

Who am I?

Why am I here?

Feeling light as a feather

I don’t know where I am headed

The language the wind speaks is unfamiliar

But yet the places it takes me are familiar

I am either too far or too near…

I am either here or there…out somewhere

There is a fear of losing myself…or of being carried away

Or of unexpected arrival of meeting self!

Am I listening? Am I seeing? Am I feeling?

It’s either too blank or too clouded

Hope comes every now and then…

Telling me that the fear can go…if only I let go!!

Meeting compassion has made me stranger to an ambition

The comfort is making me restless

There is neither the worry of the past nor the fear of the future

I hold this moment closer than ever!