Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Other Versions

We all are products of the choices that we have made till now in our respective lives. How nice it would have been to discover what we would have turned into in case we had made different choices at different stages of our lives. I for one wish so not because I am unhappy with my status quo but out of sheer curiosity. Would they have talked like me? Would they have thought like me? Would they have been happier than me? Would they have even managed to survive? Questions galore! The curiosity, however, is not about how different my other versions would be from me but how similar we would have been (or are??). Strangely, it is the extent of similarity and not dissimilarity in this vast world that often manages to catch our attention.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Pleasant And The Miserable

As the moon peeked through the trees on a windy night, I walked on the street that was occupied by few lazy dogs. After an unforgivingly hot day, the cool wind in the night was the testimony of the evening rain. The pleasant smell of the soil was still fresh. After a satisfying day at work, the idyllic weather felt like icing on the cake. Though the street was unusually empty, I didn’t really feel the need of seeing anyone around. The lonlier the place, the more comfortable I feel. Even as a child, I used to spend hours sitting alone, head thrown back, eyes staring at virtually nothing. Though people often find my state weird, I have never questioned my demeanor. Rather curiously, I find it quite pleasing.


As I marched the street, the mild noise of the footsteps tried its best to fill the air. And I was sure there was no one around to hear me. The dead leaves falling from the trees caressed me every now and then, as if trying to remind me that they too, exist and shouldn’t be ignored. As I reached my place, it was already quite late but then, that had been routine for quite some time. Waking up late, going to work and then coming back around two in the night. The routine didn’t really allow me to get glimpses of sunrise but sleeping till late in the day was a luxury in itself. Watching sunrises and sunsets has never really been on my priority list.


My arrival at my place was greeted by a rather tense silence. Though I often find silence calming, that very moment felt burdensome. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something just didn’t feel right. I stared at my room. Apparently, the room stared back at me. The night passed with intermittent sleep and when I eventually woke up in the morning, the neighbor passed on the information that a guy from the neighborhood had hung himself last night, and the reason behind it was yet to be discovered. I found myself asking if any reason was enough for the act. I am still looking for the answer.

The Quiet Shift

The ease with which one learns to live without things that were once considered an inseparable part of life is often the measure of life's forward shift. We try to hold on to those lovely things but as life moves on, we find those things gradually moving away from us and we somehow discover peace and pleasure in newer things, newer places, newer people. That is indeed where the beauty of life lies. It learns to let things go. It learns to conform to novelty. It learns to welcome the change. For better or for worse.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Consuming Friday

It's been a while since I found myself tired--physically, mentally or both. Over the last six years, there had hardly been anything in life that could generate exhaustion. To add to that, things could easily be tagged had-to-do rather than willing-to-do. Every day passed with a mild yet false hope that the next day would arrive with work that I would cherish doing. The next day, almost inevitably, used to be same as the last one. To my relief, the last Friday was one different day. By the time I reached back to my place---that being 2 am and hence, technically not Friday---the body and the mind were sweetly consumed and depleted. As the body lied on the bed, the feeling of being spent doing something meaningful over the day was much more gratifying than I had envisaged. The sleep that followed felt heavenly.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Internal Conundrum

We are usually so busy finding logic, looking for particular reasons in our day-to-day decision making process that we fail to give our instincts a chance to display what they are capable of. There are times when our mind and body align precisely and we just know that nothing, absolutely nothing can go wrong in that particular moment. But the cruel habit of mistrusting our own instincts doesn't allow us to reap the benefits of that esthetic opportunity. All we are left with is a mixed feeling of joy and sorrow that arises from being capable of knowing the right path but not walking it. We often find ourselves as our biggest enemy.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

The Hunted Ostrich

Ostrich is by far the fastest running bird. So fast that it can easily beat the race horses, let alone human beings. But when it senses a hunter lurking around, it digs a hole in the sand, buries its head in the hole and feels safe assuming that since it can't see itself, neither can the hunter. The hunter, meanwhile, gets the bird without using any of his lethal hunting equipments.The fastest bird, the hunter quips, happens to be the easiest prey. The ostrich, however, keeps wondering how the hunter managed to hunt it down.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Creation, demolished

Rome wasn't built in a day but Hiroshima was sabotaged in minutes.

It's amazing how one incorrect decision, one lose comment or one moment of insanity can literally demolish what took someone years to prepare and create. We can try our best to avoid that but if that happens, I can only think of Rudyard Kipling saying:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

May we all acquire the strength and attitude needed while enduring the toughest of times.