Random recollections

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Its strange how life is often just an accumulation of a series of occurrences. Some of them clogged, crowded and filled with activity. Some others quiet, serene, packed with pauses even vague silence(s). In moments of retrospection, life frequently flashes like a camera film with images some colorful and busy and other just plain gray.

Often we fill our lives with so much activity, sights and sounds that there is seldom room for tranquility. We even make a super human effort to fill dire and awkward silences with words and chatter. We crave the clamor and action. Yet there are times when we yearn for a few moments of peace and calm and find innate joy in solitude.

There are times when 24 hours in a day seem too little to finish our to-do list. Like we have so much to do and there's so little time left. Yet there are times when we stand and watch and life just passes by. Its exquisite how these extreme experiences encapsulate the essence of Life.

A walk down memory lane.....

Those were the days. The days when hanging out, chilling, partying, gifts, movies, crushes, eating out, fun and well if you stretched it a little, exams and marks were the gamut of words that pretty much summed up her life's vocabulary.

They were a gang of four. Krish, Heather, Sam and her. Sam's parents lived out of town. So, he'd rented a studio during his college days and that was their den. They cooked, sometimes ordered in, hung out, played dumb charades, attempted to combined study, teased each other and had a field day. Any restaurant or bakery that came up within a 5 mile radius of their college could be rest assured of their first customers. They could have rephrased the phrase 'Leaving no stone unturned' to 'Leaving no place unvisited'. They had grown together as individuals.

As she reflected on their present she realized that they'd come a long way. How their lives had changed and though they kept in touch how it would never be the same again. That realization made those memories all the more priceless and indispensible. She would give anything to go back and be the

Pain - A very intense 4 letter word

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While driving to the shopping mall one weekend she happened to be listening to an assorted collection of songs from the recent past on her car stereo. One very meaningful song particularly caught her attention. It was rendered in the deep, mellifluous voice of Rahat fateh ali khan for the movie 'Namastey London'. She was pretty sure Javed Akhtar had penned the lyrics for it. The 2 lines that she particularly loved went like this :

"Kehne ko saath apne ek duniya chalti hai, Par chupke is dil mein tanhai palti hai".....

It was a very haunting composition. She couldn't help thinking about it for days. The intricate meaning captured in those 2 simple lines was overwhelming. She recollected Charles once mentioning : 'Many things in this life are to be done alone. One of them is living'.

She wasn't too sure she got it then but 4 years hence she probably did. Loneliness is a seldom a choice. Especially in pain. But at the end of the day, Pain is personal. Nobody can fathom the depths of your pain; nor can they share it. It is yours to endure and emerge from. But one thing she knew. It made her a more spiritual person. She hoped to be a stronger, more independent and self-sustained individual. It sure was liberating to depend on self for answers rather than look in directions that provided none. She was evolving - one tiny step at a time. And now she firmly believed that 'Some battles in life are yours to fight and no one else partakes in them'. But again 'Whats life without its fair share of twists and turbulences'?

As she pondered on that thought, another very poetic paradox struck her :

"Rishta aisa hona chahiye, jo humein apna maan sakey,
Hamare har dard to pehchan sakey.
Chal rahein ho agar hum tez baarish mein bhi,
Woh pani mein se aansoo ko pehchan sakey".

P.S : Here's a link to the song that started it all:
Main Jahaan Rahoon - Namastey London

- So long......

A symphony called Childhood!!

jk

Childhood is truly a perfect symphony of innocence and simplicity. She often wondered what the world would be like if people continued to be child-like all their lives. Always spoke the truth, looked at the world with trusting eyes, did what pleased their hearts without having to worry about the rest of the world and most necessarily found joy and contentment in simple things in life. The world would have either been a paradise where all was perfect or it would have been in complete turmoil with everything spinning out of control. Nonetheless, she knew that nothing kindled more faith and hope than looking into the soulful, trusting eyes of an innocent child.

She often wished that she could travel back in time and be the carefree little girl she once was with no agendas, no ambitions, no expectations, no responsibilities and no sense of propriety. Where the endless blue sky waited with open arms to engulf her flight, where the earth always had the fragrance of the first spells of rain, where the wind hummed a celestial tune, where the valley of flowers was always in full bloom, where the deep blue sea had a mystery world within and the starlit night sky was nothing but home to a million glow-worms. She found it amazing how people found other avenues that were more attractive and alluring than these incredible mysteries of nature, once they grew up.....

Maybe that's why it is said that "Childhood often holds a truth in its feeble fingers, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain". So, there are only two lasting bequests one can hope to give their children. One is roots, the other is wings.

Motherhood - A life changing experience

j
She discovered with time that her life had changed and she had transitioned too. Motherhood was like nothing she'd ever read, heard or known. It was beautiful yet awe-inspiring.


21 things that change when you have a baby:

1. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
2. You respect your body ... finally.
3. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
4. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
5. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
6. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.
7. Your heart breaks much more easily.
8. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
9. Every day is a surprise.
10. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
11. You become a morning person.
12. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
13. You finally realize that true joy doesn't come from material wealth.
14. You'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you've been dying to have.
15. You don't mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on Friday night.
16. Silence? What's that?
17. You no longer rely on a clock — your baby now sets your schedule.
18. You learn that taking a shower is a luxury.
19. You realize that you can love a complete stranger.
20. You find yourself wanting to make this world a better place.
    
21. If you didn’t believe in love at first sight before, now you do