PASSION

I recently met a very old friend. In reality, he is my childhood friend's husband. But then, he also is a friend to many. And I am one of them.

Here is one person I have known, who, without any prejudices or being judging, takes you as a friend, as you are. He, like my childhood friend, almost knows everything about me. And believe me when I say, that the best of your friends, that the oldest of your friends, that the nicest of your friends, that the most trustworthy of your friends, will pass a judgement on the events of your life, or put you in a category, or simply WILL write you out of their lives due to what has happened in your life. But here, is a couple who I have great respect for, for who they are, and for their acceptance of the people for themselves rather than for the occurances in their lives.

Every human has to live different phases in their lives. And I have just begun a new phase of living. I have so much to do. And I do not know where to start. On one hand, there is a career to be pursued, and on the other, a life to be lived to its fullest. On one hand, a child has to be brought up in the so called 'balanced' manner, and on the other, aged parents to be made to feel cared for and loved. On one hand, life passes by in the daily grind, and on the other, I need to take hold of it so that it does not go away uneventful. So much to do. So little time.

I asked him his thoughts on the same. He took a minute to reply, but his reply changed my way of living. He said, live everything with passion. Hey, haven't I heard that before, I thought. Well, yes, we all have heard it before. And yet again, like everything else, we ignored the 'passion' part of it. Oh yes, we heard it. But did we really listen? Where was the passion? If we would have heard it with passion, then we would have listened to what was behind it. That is what he meant. And when I heard it with passion, I understood it. He simply meant - EVERYTHING THAT WE WANT TO DO IN LIFE, WE GOT TO GIVE IT OUR ALL. That means, do not expect anything. Just do what you need to do with all your heart and soul. Just give it everything you have. Whether you pass in it or you fail, one thing is for sure, you are satisfied that you did what you could. You gave it your best.

And that, my friends, is the way we all need to live. No matter what the task ahead is. Even the way we breath. How many of us, even for a minute, put all our attention, on how we breathe. Just because it is something that is going to be happening till end of our lives, we totally take it for granted. Do we realise that breathing is the most important task of our lives. Where is the passion when we breathe? Its never there. And when we are so dispassionate of something so important, it becomes obvious that even though we know the importance of passion, we hardly have it for anything.

And because we are so dispassionate, we are so unhappy. We love less, we listen less, we do less, we work less and most of all we live less.

Thank you friend for telling me something I always knew but never understood..God bless you!!

LIFE - THE WAY ITS TO BE LIVED

We live our lives in phases

chasing dreams

not knowing the difference

between our wants

and our needs

Along the way

we hurt and get hurt

expect and fulfill expectations

idealise

strengthen or lose our faiths

either looking at life with a holistic eye

or be stuck in life's weeds

And as destiny desires

we find our share

of happiness and agony

of love and betrayal

or success and failure

and most important

of what our souls feed on and breed

And when twilight comes

and when life is about to set

we see the ultimate truth

that we have in fact

only reaped 

what we have sown as a seed

And so it becomes obvious

that happiness

does not mean possessing

but means letting go

that it comes from within

no matter what you are going through

He who lives this way

has lived his life indeed

Ek sher likha hai

Andheron se nikalne ki chaah na ho

to savera haath kaise aayega

Gumshuda zindagee takdeer nahin

jo tu chahega wahi tu paayega

Khushi ko apnee tu aadat banaa le

ghamon se bhi iske lamhe chura le

Kaun hai aisa jisko takleefain nahin

jee bhar ke jeene to apni ibaadat banaa le

Gar tera koi saathi nahin to gham na kar

apne andar ki mohabbat ko kam na kar

Kisi ek se mohabbat to sabhi karte hain

tu sab se pyar karne ka dam bhar

Waqt nahin rukta kabhi kisi ki khatir

Apni hee raftaar se chalta hai woh

Aaj main hi kar le woh jo karna chaahe tu

jaate hue pal kabhi na aayenge phir

THIS IS HOW I LIVE MY LIFE...WHAT'S YOUR CHOICE

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin colour will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories of those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

-writer unknown

A TRUE STORY

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified into ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of the impending disaster, had carried her offspirng to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that toxic smoke would soon rise. She could have flown to safety, but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. She had been willing to die, so that those under the cover of her wings would live.

Is there a lesson here for you and for me? 

LIFE - AS I SEE IT RIGHT NOW..

There is no human on earth who is free of problems. And I am one such human. 

However, as much as I have experienced life, here is what I have realised. We as humans have a tendency to look at everything, especially our troubles, through a powerful  magnifying glass. And therefore, every small problem we have, seems huge, almost demon-like. If we were to take our problems like a pebble, and hold that pebble right up close to our eyes, it will even cover the sun from our vision. But if we were to hold the same pebble away from our eyes, it is just a small pebble and nothing else. Problems, when viewed in the background and context of our blessings, are mere challenges to be faced and to be overcome; but when we view them in isolation, they seem unsurmountable.

I, for one, am choosing to live my life to the fullest and walk on smiling, despite all the pebbles on my way. And my advice to everyone who wants to take it, is, take these pebbles in your stride, and they shall become your best friends...!!

I SHALL ALWAYS COUNT MY BLESSINGS AND NEVER MY TROUBLES

When I asked God for strength

He gave me difficult situations to face.

When I asked God for brain and brawn

He gave me puzzles in life to solve.

When I asked God for happiness

He showed me some unhappy people.

When I asked God for wealth

He showed me how to work hard.

When I asked God for favours

He showed me opportunities to grab.

When I asked God for peace

He showed me how to help others.

God gave me nothing I wanted

He gave me everything I needed.

-Swami Vivekananda

Slumdog Millionaire - My perspective

Quite A well made movie.....but certain points are worth a dekko.

Slum dog millionaire...

With everyone singing praises to Mr. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, let me offer a different perspective.

This film targets the easiest of targets: the ever placid Hindu. The hero is, of course, a Muslim in India, whose mother is burned to death by an attack on Muslims by barbaric, fanatical Hindu mobs. No need for subtlety in either dialogue or depiction here; the Hindu mob says: "They are Muslims. Let us hit them," and the hapless Muslims cry as they flee in terror: "The Hindus are coming! The Hindus are coming."

To make sure his point about Hindu devilry is not missed, director Boyle has a shot of a child dressed as Rama, one of Hinduism's most cherished gods. Imagine the outcry that would have resulted if Boyle had reversed the above: i.e., had a shot of a child dressed as prophet Mohammed or Jesus as Muslims/Christians hurried off to persecute members of another faith! But since Hindus seem oblivious to any and every insult, Boyle has not only gotten away with his blasphemies, but seems well on his way to awards and accolades.

The sledgehammer hits against Hindus and Hinduism does not end there. On the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the Muslim hero is asked a question by the TV host: "What weapons does Lord Rama bear in his hands?" Our Muslim hero answers: "If there was no Rama, my mother would have been alive." Again, imagine the outcry that would have resulted if the hero was a Hindu from Kashmir (Islamic terrorism has almost wiped out the Hindu population in Kashmir) and he had said: "If there was no Allah, my mother would be alive."

All said and done.. hope Mr. A.R. Rehmaan gets the Oscar ..though we in India know that he has composed finer music ..far superior to the scores in this film.

Just a Thought..

It is an irony that the breathtaking beauty of India is sold to foreigners for thousands of dollars and euros but is not available to see, for its own citizens. The country has become expensive to explore for the very people who live in it..

A lovely poem

This is a lovely poem I read somewhere...and so true too..

Who Owns?

When the stars glitter in the sky

When flowers blossom on the earth

And when things recur like this with no end

Even as the truth keeps changing

And gets changed everyday.

We remember,

No one owns any thing

And no one matters to any one.

Life ebbs out

Our pride and our wrath

Also ebb out

And the tales end

In a square of earth

Just as it did begin.