An idea, a thought, an anecdote, a story or a poem a day!

  When they asked us to gather all our belongings and make a bonfire  We didn't recoil, we lit up the skies It was for a cause and we wanted  complete annihilation for our own redemption! When they asked us to burn all our fields, We didn’t cringe, we burnt it all As it was for a purpose, for  a reason, a  burning reason,  So, i nstead of sowing grain, we sowed fire and reaped hunger and devastation!! When they asked us to send our young ones t o kill and be killed We didn’t flinch, we killed and got killed As it was a season of revenge, and rebellion, redemption Yes, it was a war to end all wars!  Wasn't it? But was' t!! 

A lethargy is settling in us, in terms of our ideals of  social equality,  our  generosity, care and understanding that we had felt for our fellow beings, those near and those a far, people all suffering the onslaught of covid, all under the same sky, in a levelled world! But with the recently discovered clarity of this post covid world, with a shift in this  definition  of fraternity , the "social distancing" I can see, all of us are at different levels in every way; mine so high, and theirs so low’; of mine being shiny white and theirs being so black, this superiority of my ideologies over theirs; and this imperialism of my isms, over theirs; and I had thought we had walked away from these ideas, well, by putting such a long distance in-between us!  

  Once upon a time, I remember, when you spoke, using real words, with your lips twisted at an angle, with your eyes smiling or pretending to go glazed, and I got it, the emotion, the joke, the idea!   And, those words remain imprinted in my mind, they cannot be edited, paused or replayed!!   Unlike the mechanical messages that we send and receive every day, And in too much communication, words are lost! The medium has become the message!

  Right to or left to die   She awaits at the curb of life for the road stretching beyond to fork into two directions! The right to or left to!  Y es, one day at a time,   she knows at least that much!!  “What would it be today”, she wonders! A day with the morning easy and the afternoon comfortable The actions less painful, and the acts pain free! The things, the people, the room, the window, less dark, and more of a blur Moving shadows, hands touching her, soft and not demanding, but caring!! Or would it be a day, she thinks,  completely dark but crystal clear,  showing her all the scars and scabs of life, peeling away into the days and nights which crowd her mind!  the only thing that she remembers is  the pain travelling from her body  to her spine, and from  her mind  subsiding into , if you believe in these type of things, her soul!! And what she can do is, walk one step at a time, till it is time!!!

  Well, being a woman is mostly about, resistance, persistence, and existence.   This idea of being a woman, where did I get it from?   Could this be the legacy of those strong women in my life who were a bit arrogant, but generous, capable, and interesting women!   They showed me that   There is always a price for being meek, being subdued and being taken care of, as you are taken lightly, and sort of despised!   Then there is a price that you pay for being strong and independent, and yes, for  being bold and persistent, as you are taken seriously, and sort of respected!  They taught me  that  to love someone, you do not need to stop respecting yourself I learnt from them that  In this life, you make your own place, and choose your own role, and  you make the choice to take the easy or the hard way! As there will certainly be alternatives,  but no matter what you decide, there is no guarantee you will not be challenged!  So, you need to do, what you need to do! And

 Late to places, can't organise your work, have too much on your plate! I'm the same! Lets us just think Why are we late to places Why do we get bogged down, snowed under work Why do we have so much going on  I think  Because We say, "No problem, yes, I can".  Yes, Sir, we cannot say no.  Because We believe, "Everything that I want to do is important".  No, Sir, we are not good at prioritising -  Because WE think, "I can do it all".  Simple words, we are optimistic and overestimate ourselves,  We think, "I will have enough time to do this and that"! I wish others understood us! But how can they, as we don't understand, "how can people be so organised, never late, and always know what is important, and only do that!"  

  Peace? How did it feel?    My princess, her eyes shining with unshed tears that break my heart, asks me, this innocent question “How does it feel like?” I want to give an answer, but hesitate, Holding her small hand in my hand, I am thinking How do I describe something that is no more? When she asks me again, “Is it velvety, smooth, and soothing like the cool touch of your palm?” Kissing that quiver of a forgotten smile on her lips, begging for an answer,  I try to re-imagine how it was, When her voice urgently pleads me “Does it have a taste, is it as sweet as sugar, or salty like your kisses, Mumma?” Unable to answer even this question, I remain silent as   How can you even describe what its taste was, so different from the mettle taste of war? When yet another question coaxes me to speak “Does it make any sound, sweet and musical, like your singing?” As she waits for my answer patiently, I wonder And trying to remember the forgotten sound of silenc

  Running in the garden,   just a few hours left of the day before it will be lost forever,  I have come to the  house, to undo what had escaped from my hands,  trying to get there before IT saw me, before I was caught! There are cameras everywhere, I had ins talled them myself! Three minutes.  I time the distance, guessing, how much it would take to reach the back door without being seen or felt! With the pin not working, I try sneaking in through the window, and cut my fingers while removing the glass, I jump in what used to be my cave, the man cave With blood oozing from my self-inflicted wounds, I look  around for a water jug, and  come face to face with the dish of soap, flying in, flourishing a towel, singing a sweet tune…. ring a ring a roses…., a pocket full of posies! Swearing under my breath, "no time for this, you fool," I push the dish away, and quickly wash my hands off  my own blood, hoping it'd stop the trail  before those following me, smell

    This new world, with old maladies, and the new ways of expressing them Connected virtually and disconnected  really Speaking through machines to machines! What is in this conversation we are having 24/7 Always ready, always connected With our heads down, our fingers busy, we don’t look up, and  in the Algorithms of what is expected,  we keep producing standard answers, 😊😑👏💓 claps, smilies, frowns, love hearts, cheers🥂 As they say better than what I can say or what you choose to say, even tears 😓  You are reading me, but are you listening? We are creating our own truths, analogous to each other, walking together but never the twain meet! I ‘breathe’ in my echo chamber, breathe in what chimes with me, breathe in what rhymes with me,    While you, in yours, thinking the same!    You don’t see, what I see,  a different script of the same story Written in our parallel worlds My heroes are not heroes in your story and vice versa  And your truths are rubbish in mine! The essence of

  Waking up on a sultry foggy smoggy morning, I looked around urgently, expecting it to be different from my nightmare,  But smoke from the burning fires, ash from the bursting volcanoes, and the dirt from the dried land cracking in the drought  showed the same desolation writ large on the horizon there seemed to be a cloud hanging like a pal but with no rain in sight, as the weather report had said bluntly. My eyes were a bit sore with the dry heat and the dirt all around But my sadness didn’t melt into tears, which could’ve washed up the grit rubbing against the insides, a residue of the devastation everywhere, as it needs emotion to cry too! It was and it remained, all grey, all dry, all day, till I went back to sleep, finding some solace in the idea that Maybe, it was just a dream! Till I woke up again the next morning..... (Written during the 2020  Australia's Bush fire Crisis)

  That morning, with some of my family members, I had come to Garh Ganga, which is a small town at the banks of the River Ganga. We had come there for the holy bath, an annual ritual, but due to shortage of time, instead of going to Haridwar, we had come here because it is the closest point for us, where we can dip in Ganga.  Ram, who is my uncle’s son, lives there, and though we had not met in years, he remembered me and was addressing me as  Didi,  big sister. He was guiding us around the town, and was quite protective of us, especially around the banks of the holy river, which were teaming with priests and pandas waiting for pilgrims like us for their daily business, getting their clients to recite Om, while washing off their sins in the holy water. There was a lot of Omkara, recitation of Om everywhere.  We finished our holy bath, and a short  puja,  a special morning religious ceremony, in which we recited Om, quite a few times. (1). Ram started by explaining how Om is to be recit

  Distance What phenomenon is this? Distance – The Space in between the two points– Yes, the space between the points, or the two places, and between ideas, which is actually good, as different ideas, and thoughts can survive without smothering the other! And yes, the distance between bodies, hearts, and souls, between people, and that is good too, as they can thrive without bothering the other!  But is that bad?  They are all distant, a s there is a distance  between them. Still, the measure of the distance  between them,  how far, how long, how much, distant they are, that is connecting them,  So, they are connected by distance!!! Look at me, I have walked so far, far away from you, still the distance is connecting us!  Recently, I had read that  The distance between two points  is the length of the line segment connecting them, and that the distance between two points is always positive.  Segments that have equal length are called congruent segments.   And it had started

Lets think, what being successful means, and is it different from being happy? ? If success means achieving what makes us happy, then happiness is to feel that we are successful, is it not?  But where does this happiness come from? From being successful? We know, happiness doesn't come from money, and the worldly things, but everyone of us seems to be running after such things, a higher job, a bigger house, a faster car, a smarter phone, why? Because we attach being successful to having these things.   And, when we have these things, and we feel successful, we are happy, but then this happiness slips away, as there is something more, bigger or newer that we want!  We are running a race that is going on, for more and more, and mostly just being part of this race means that we are successful, but the question is what are we successful in?  In consuming more? In wanting 'more'?  In spending more? And when we cannot, we feel dissatisfied, incomplete, left behind in this race, w

 She says no to stop you, so understand  No means no.  It means no when you tease her on the road  Wink at her, send a flying kiss to her She looks away, understand it, she says no When you touch her arm in the bus, try to stand close Pretend to fall on her, jostle her She flinches, it means No When you force her to  When you twist her arm When you deny her  She says yes, but she means No! Listen, watch, see and understand What is consent and what a No is!

  We, who are all running after contentment, do we even know what contentment actually means? Does it mean being content, satisfied, and happy, with what we have, where we are, who we are with today?  Then I'd say that we are running after a butterfly, a transient, fleeting feeling, something that we would never achieve for a longer period. As where we are happy today, with whom, and with what we have, that keeps changing. We want something today, and really want it, and we think, that is what would make us content, and yes, it does feel like we are content, after we get what we want, for a little while. But then the same thing which made us content, is not enough. It doesn't satisfy us anymore. WE want something else, something more.  So, what if being content meant, just being content, like our nature to be satisfied with whatever we have, a value that keeps us happy always with ourselves, that would be the intrinsic, an internal  contentment. Just like Milton's Happiness

    That sense of being, which makes a sapling bloom like a flower, If that is its dharam [1] ; then the seed can’t do anything else; but grow up to be a tree! That existence consciousness that illuminates every man and woman with truth,   beauty, and   bliss of humanity, if that exists in you too then why does not your dharam  of being a human, make you human? That is the question every child caught up in war, violence, and abuse, Asks of humanity! And humanity, ashamed, cannot even answer a simple question, Why is it that every child, as is its dharam  to grow up, does not!      [1] Dharam is the intrinsic motivation, like a duty, to realise one's potential, to be what one is supposed to be.

Red Riding Hood!  It is your tale too! Let's rewrite your story,  with a different beginning and a different ending, as it's is your tale too!  In your tale you don't need  t o be lost and found   You don't have to be followed and chased  Neither to be freed nor to be bound!   You, you are beautiful, but not meek,  You are delicate but not weak!   Yes, you love and adore, but sure you can also roar!! Why shouldn't you be free to roam it you also own the woods Let us rewrite the story today,  as  in your tale,  we do not need wolves nor do we want any Robin Hoods!    

  A famous saying, “I think, therefore I am!” is interesting, and complex. Descartes, a French philosopher has been known to have said this line. Declaring that human intellect is much more than human feelings, he had started a branch of philosophy. And is that true for all of us, do we think therefore we are, or are we first and that is why we think? Or can we say “what we think that is what we are or that’s what we become?”  It is so much like the concept of Karma, we become what our karma is, or do we become first, and make our Karma/destiny accordingly! That is what I think sometimes! Do you too?

  There is a difference between truth and knowledge.  Truth is what we want to know, but what we know, actually that is not the truth, it is just our knowledge   !  A quote from an ancient Indian classic, RigveD   presents this idea  succinctly,  - "Ekam sad vipraha bahuda vadanti", meaning “Truth is one; the wise describe ‘it’ in different ways”!  This quote can confuse us, disappoint us as we realise inadequacy  of our  knowledge , but actually it challenges us to question what we know and what we are told .  It tells us that we  should be seekers, active individuals finding our own truth, and not followers of someone else's truth which  is not the absolute truth .   As truth is one, but described in many dif ferent forms!

    Let distance keep us together   It is so much easier to feel you, When I cannot see you, cannot touch you or smell you!   As when you are a far I can paint a perfect picture of you, and us, of our life! In it, I will be the love of your life; and you the life of my love …   And our life, an ad for eHarmony Our love - a Facebook post   Please let's not zoom nor WhatsApp ! It will be much more delicious to think of you,   Please let’s not phone each other! It will be much more poignant to speak to you/listen to you, Through the silence between us Heard melodies are sweet, but those not heard, are sweeter!

  Sweet, yet so subtle, the sound of silence, each stem of a thought, vibrating like a full board of keys, each note more minute than the point of a pin, to be heard subtly -  just like the idea in the mist that 'my car vipers can sing,  the moving fingers in the silence of rain'  you get lost, you forget what you know, who you are!  

In the enclave of darkness that we orbit night and day Let’s become the glow worms and learn to be human in their play with fire,  Burn and glow,  be kind and compassionate, and  light up someone's life, Let us too rain on humanity with the milk of human kindness, so that each tissue of our light, and each drop of our soul, cheers up someone and brightens up someone’s way!