Counting Life By Moments..

People don’t last forever, sometimes neither relationships do. Yet, its just memories and moments that make us truly alive are those that last forever, or atleast till we do.

Why?

I guess we all know the answer at the subconscious level, yet it does take a conscious effort to acknowledge, understand and give our life and every living moment to the moment.

Can we design our destiny or rule our fate?

I doubt it very much. Yet, we do hold a control of the passing moments and have the power in our hand to transform them into magical memories for the life time. Just a small thought in this direction really showed me things in a new light and hence it became a resolution for this festival period.

Some Moments Cherished…

Yesterday unraveled like a beautiful present for me, and what made it special was that truly cherished feeling that you can acquire only in the companionship of those who can converse with your silence. I am sure going to mark that wonderful day in my memory forever, and I couldn’t help but muse on all those wonderful moments in life when many loved ones walked that extra mile to show how much they cared or loved. Those surprise visits from lovedones, those thoughtful actions from friends, that special care from friends in times when spirit hits an all time low, that precious gift of time from your mentors and pals when you need them the most, and those tiny thoughtful acts of love that tacitly speak volumes about how much blessed I am.

I couldn’t help but say a small prayer at heart, for thoughts do fail me in those moments of unquenchable happiness. God, give me life and heart to reciprocate the abundant love and kindness that I receive in this world, and do give me conscience to smell the roses along the path and count my blessings along this seemingly endless journey of life.

Matters of Insignificance…

My morning calm was perturbed by a really insignificant matter today. For those who know me only through this online medium, one of my queer little idiosyncrasies include punctuality. The time on my watch is always 10 minutes ahead, and on the top of it, I try to make it five minutes in advance to the Time I have in mind. So, if I plan for an 7:30 AM morning walk to office, negotiations are rarely allowed.

Most (almost all) of my mornings are heavily dosed with a random discipline of adherence to some schedule, which sounds logical only through retrospective justification. And so was today. My dependence on another person delayed my morning walk at 7:30 by 40 minutes which took me through a phase of disquiet and I ended up taking the cab instead. Just because there was a mismatch between what happened and what I had scheduled to happen, I was jolted out of my composure and couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the moment.

Learning to live in the beauty of the present seems like an eternal pursuit indeed.

Moment By Moment..

Thats the way to take life I guess.. I never can claim that I lead a perfect life, yet yes, I acknowledge the existence of some perfect moments as and when they happen.

This Saturday was really like some pot luck where one discovers all his favorite dishes at one go. Ever experienced this wicked glee on your face when someone sings aloud those melodies that are lingering in your thought? Ever cribbed to God about something, and saw your choicest desire taking shape in an instant? Ever longed for some soulful company and saw your best pal calling you that very moment.. All this and many more brightened my joy to the hilt..

Am just counting my blessings, moment by moment. 🙂

Revisiting Childhood!

My entire weekend can be termed under one phrase: “Sheer Bliss”! I spent the best part of my weekend at Kuppa Metta Kandriga, which is located at the Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu border, almost 14 kilometers away from a small village called Nagari. This trip is a impromptu one, and I went in as a willing companion to my mother who wanted to visit her childhood friends and relatives located over there.

We caught a bus (#201) at CMBT in Chennai to go to Nagari which is some 2 hours journey and then boarded an auto arranged by my uncle to go to his Farm House. Thankfully, there is a decent cement road laid to connect those remote areas.. My childhood impressions prepared me for horse carts and I am delighted to trade it for an Auto rickshaw. I still remember those insensitive days when the cart driver used pepper powder on the eyes of the horse to make it carry heavy load in 1990s. 😦 Already, there is nostalgia setting in my mind and I longed for an escape into the simplistic life of the villages!

Well, how to you feel if you land up in an isolated place where you see greenery everywhere and there isn’t a single man made concrete building around for miles? I got more than I bargained for. I got joy, contentment, elation, solitude and peace! This farmhouse is set in sugarcane plantations and is filled with sunlight, fresh air and space. Their house is surrounded by lavish opulence of dangling beauties like jasmines, cosmos, frangipanis, periwinkles and firecrackers (kanakambaram) basking in glorious sunshine only to be competed by those Mango, Coconut, Guava and Pomegranate trees offering ripe temptations.. I had innocent elation at discovering the livestock. There were cattle, and pet dogs. I had a dewy-eyed pleasure in feeding cattle, taking calves for walk, and playing with dogs.

The beauty of the place is enhanced by the sounds of silence: rustling of the trees, buzzing of the leaves, soft cooing of the birds and the faint tinging of the bells. I wandered like a spoilt child, discovering delight everywhere, uncared for the hot sun.. I just loved those ornate cement floors, archaic concrete bath tubs, that gushing pump set by the old well, and that black and white television at their home.. I loved the night even more. Ensconced in natural air conditioning, admiring the star-lit skies and the shimmering glow worms, all I could think of is ‘Contentment’. It kind of transported me back into childhood and I was fourteen again!

Vagabond in The Garden Of Destiny..

Thats how I look at myself. Somehow, I refuse to believe that our life is moulded in a predictable fashion to achieve a particular end. Life is what we make it to be. Destiny is not a stationary target. It changes along with time, along with every decision or choice that I make. We are the best judge of our miseries, actions or destinies.

Whenever we take a step, we see different paths laid out in front of us.. The path that we choose or the choices that we made creates the destiny for us. The whole idea of being destined to do something sounds quite romantic, isn’t it? It gives such a comfortable feeling to all the rationalizations that we do, like a chicken soup for soul! Probably when we walk the path and look back at the end of this life, we will only see the one we took and when we look ahead its just a dark world thats enveloping us in its madness.. Then, are we trying to rationalize our destiny as well?

well, for me.. I am comfortable in living in the moment, savoring the experience and loosing myself in my world!

Life is Lost in Race..

Guess its worth pondering on what are we loosing on in this rat race.. Misguided competition, materialistic pursuits, changing relationships, commonplace goals and diminishing values and rise of timeserver mentality.. All take lion’s share in the rise of noise in our lifestyles..

I often go back to those unadulterated childhood memories in a village where there is a lot of human touch in interactions. A great deal of value is placed in human concern, affection, and sharing, though everyone maintained their boundaries.. Well, here we are, in a border less world, yet we are lonely as ever. Driven by individualism, powered by the new age values of convenience and comfort, we are loosing out on the social interactions. Email, Call, Fax..Inundated by the communication channels, the interaction has become faceless, lacking warmth and touch.

Do we want better cell phones or improved human relations? Do we want increased life span or enhanced quality of life? Bigger homes or space in life? Irony of our times is that we have all the modern comforts at our service and lesser time to enjoy them. We stopped to pause, reflect and appreciate little joys of life and the meaning behind the obvious. As we get swamped and drowned by the new age ideals, the only solace lies in being aware of our actions.

Check these verses which are being circulated as forward.. Worth Contemplating..

THE PARADOX OF OUR TIMES

– Attributed to the Dalai Lama and to George Carlin

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints
We spend more, but we have less
We have bigger houses, but smaller families
More conveniences, but less time
We have more degrees, but less sense
More knowledge, but less judgment
More experts, but more problems
More medicines, but less wellness

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often
We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life
We have added years to life, but not life to years
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour
We have conquered outer space, but not inner space
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul
We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice
We’ve higher incomes, but lower morals
We’ve become long on quantity but short on quality

These are the times of tall men, and short character
Steep profits, and shallow relationships
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare
More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition
These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces
Of fancier houses, but broken homes
It is a time when there is much in the show window
And nothing in the stockroom

A time when technology can bring this letter to you
And a time when you can choose
Either to make a difference…. or just hit, delete.

Life Moves On An Assembly Line..

I am wondering about life in one of those contemplative moods, how our life passes through the predictable phases. Almost as if we go through an assembly line. From one pipe to another, from one phase to another considering each stage to be the most challenging one.. This is what I call Pipe Theory! 😉

Life goes on in stages, the teenage, getting a job, getting married, living like DINK (Double Income , No Kids), Children, Midlife Crisis, Old Age and so on!

When I look back into my past, guess my entire educational career fits into one pipe! each year is a fresh challenge.. To Win, to reach the top only to discover a new high! Now that the educational career is supposedly over, a new fight in the corporate world begins! If life retains a moment of semblance and if you find yourself settling down to the comfortable routine, thats when new priorities emerge. Find a guy, get married, build a home and warm your bones by the TV.. Well, thats the life on a high way line.. Coz, its the life that most of us understand as a comfortable and acceptable normal social pattern!

I’m sure everyone must have thought of diversions in those ‘Oh What the Heck!’ moments.. Yet we long for predictable comfort and social acceptance. Don’t we? We all have hope in hearts and a zeal to explore life. Although being the most irrational creatures on earth, we still plan, rationalize, reason it out and move on trying to capture our slice of life, by creating our own set of stories and adventures! Isn’t that chivalrous?!