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

A darkness is falling on this  too busy, too involved world, too much involved in itself,  In our conversations with each other t here is not much substance  anyway,  as the shadows of triviality have gathered, c hoking the fire in our hearts  that we forget to celebrate those who gave substance to our life,  Fire in relationships is being extinguished,  the sun has gone out of them, Blocking the  passage for the light of love to enter and memories to be made and held easily  With the virtual stores of our memories The real store of these transactions is being shut! and in the smoke being emanated from this burning off  human relationships with humans a re being rewritten in borrowed words, and texts in smilies, in claps, and love hearts made of colour of blood! 

My father Principal R. M. Sharma A Thinker PHILOSOPHER  Karam yogi Loving Disciplinary Wise Vigorous  Strong Simple Playful a maverick A juggler A guide A teacher (30th June his birthday, he always enjoyed every birthday, halwa,  instead of a cake,  sometimes drinks at Davicos in Shimla, few puffs of a marcopolo cigar, a full life cut into a quater by unfortunate circumstances, and sickness, last few months, in Iran, like a flicker of a candle burning bright before it goes off,  passed away 30th July 1983)

We live in a ghost town Look, there are ghosts roaming the streets You can't see them, but you can almost feel their presence Yes, masked people, carrying their dull eyes in their bewildered heads rushing somewhere, in a hurry, to return, from wherever they had come out to walk, to get food, to give food, or care, to run to the shop, or to the doctor's trying to avoid touching anything, scared of others they find on their streets, Looking through my window, at this sunny winter afternoon, when the sun is just right on your back I put my mask on too, and get out, just for a short walk, joining the invisible others and also trying to avoid them,   Yes, I'm a ghost too, one of many, scared of those walking on my street.

  Celebrate the renewal of the Earth!!  Did you listen to the rumble coming towards you?  Did you feel the heat, warming up the planet? Did you notice the drying up of life, evaporating into barren clouds! Yes, the lioness is on the move again! Listen, listen to its roar!   This fire, that’s been burning from the cluster of our needs, to till, to toil and tow away every inch of this Earth's womb; has grown into a bottomless pit that never fills, unlike a tomb, lined with this urge for  Power in a bid to producing more and consuming more!   This love affair with fire, this lust from the flint fire days,  has driven us for centuries digging out carbon, drilling petro-wells,  mining diamonds and minerals for battery cells taking this Earth’s inner parts apart burning holes into its crust  And this romance has now come to a head!!   Did you listen to the rumble coming towards you Just from a few yards?  The lioness is on the move again! And in a blink of an eye your world can topple li

  A place that was home, that street that held my world! Neera   A place that was home, that home that was my world Is still somewhere as I left it!   I can still see that street of seven houses where my childhood is still clinging to each door, or hanging with my mother’s   washing soaking in the sun, and floating in the wind. That massi, that Raju’s daadi that noisy and nosey auntie Patialan with four kids sitting on the sill shelling peas and shouting comments, that I hear still!   I hear my friends playing in the street As I topple the seven shiny tiles with my rubber ball and running away madly and they chasing me all Calling "Pithoo pithoo pithoo", I can still hear and the sun is still setting and my mother’s still calling me home!   I can still feel the rush that I felt Can smell the almond fragrance that I smelt And strange desires like unknown neighbours, where met me at every nook and corner of that stree

  Did you listen to the rumble coming towards you?  the lioness is on the move again! Let this sleeping fire, lie where it belongs!! Fire always burns, eventually! (People of Namibia, in South Africa have stood up to stop a Canadian company from drilling oil to save their future) In this northeastern corner of Namibia, on the borders of Angola and Botswana, a Canadian oil company called ReconAfrica has secured the rights to explore what it believes could be the next -- and perhaps even the last -- giant onshore oil find. )

Yes, all this time, the money had been there, it had been, for the past 40-45 years!  And there was a lot of it! I couldn't count, but Babli would, once the cook was out of the room!  Babli got rid of the cook, giving her some big money from her cupboard, and asked her to go shopping, to buy stuff for a feast, whatever she wanted to cook and eat!  Bewildered at the change in the atmosphere, the cook left with the money! I was so relieved, that I felt like just folding up and sleeping myself, but I knew, Babli needed me the most. She had not been very well, and the tension of past few years had also taken its toll.  Well, once, she had checked the money in the box, "wink wink", that I had been hiding, she could relax, I thought. Soon she was sitting and sipping her tea, I was sure she was planning her next move, as she had to. She wouldn't need to do anything now, I mean things, that she didn't want to do, things that others wanted her to do.  And I couldn't wa

After a restless night, it was a late morning, when the cook came to the room to wake up Babli, with a cup of tea, and then she also asked Babli for some money.  "What happened to the money in the kitchen", Babli asked her a bit roughly., Yes, the petty cash that she kept in a bowl in the kitchen for daily cooking needs so the cook didn't have to trouble her for everything! Babli was annoyed, but she took the key from under her pillow, and got out of the bed to open the cupboard, and feeling dizzy, due to the sudden exertion, and would've certainly fallen down, if she hadn't held on to me. I supported her, like always, saving her from falling, still her head banged on the side of the fourth poster.  There was a bang, and a sound, a bit hollow.  And that's when suddenly something from the past flashed in our collective minds together.   And I could hear and almost see her father giving her the box, may be just a few years after her marriage.  On his way to a pi

Think, think, yes, if you can't do anything else, you can at least think.  That's what I said to myself.  Think and remember. There is something always in the past that explains something else in the future. I'm sure I had heard it said more than once right here in this room.  Don't forget where you came from, don't forget who you are and what you had brought with you. Yes, I had heard it a few times, something like this and also that you brought nothing, something like that too.  Confusing but am sure it was a wise saying!  So, what do we need from our past to solve this predicament that we were in.  What did I bring with me maybe nothing!  What did she bring with her? I was thinking about the past something in our collective past that could hint at a solution to our problem.  I was thinking hard, so hard that my body started to shake a bit.  Babli looked at me and said,  "Yes, we need to think hard, find a solution.  We need money, a lot of it, so the house i

Somehow, after such a stormy start to the day, the afternoon had turned out to be very different. Yes, a contrast to the morning, and the previous evening.  After a lot of commotion, with her son stomping around angry and really upset with her, about the paper she had to sign, and she, lying down, crying and refusing to sign, or to get out of the room, suddenly it was quiet, so quiet that I doubted if anyone other than Babli, sitting on the chair outside in the veranda, was there in the house.  She had refused to sign the paper, that much I knew, but then what had happened, those details, I had no way of knowing, but this much, I had gathered that her son had gone back, yes back from where he had come!  And with him, gone was the heavy atmosphere; and suddenly there was a beautiful light and a peaceful silence.  Peaceful, as after days, Babli was sitting in the veranda, having a cup of tea. She must have asked the cook to get her the tea, because the tray was on the little table beside

Yes, I was just the witness, who had witnessed it all. Her life, her youth, her happiness, her miseries, and  her helplessness! And today, I was going to witness what will break her heart, and would literally break me, completely!  Her son had left the paper and the pen right there, for her to sign. She had lied down again feeling weak, sad and abandoned. I could hear her crying.  My Babli, yes, she was now frail with age too, but she was still so beautiful, soft and loving, and my love for her had now reached yet another height, I was able to feel her pain and hear her unspoken  words even, and I was very protective of her. She was whispering about the deed, her son had asked her to sign, and remembering her son's father, who had left her alone to face it all in her old age.  The house had to be sold. Yes, and she had to leave, this house, this city, where she had come as a bride 50 years ago, an 18 year old young bride.  We had hardly been separated during this period of 50 years

Squirming, from the vantage point from where I could see everything, I wanted to stop her.  Using one of  the hand carved rails of my canopy, I wanted to throw the whole thing down before she could say, 'yes'; but I couldn't, as I could never hurt her. As it was no guarantee that the canopy would fall on him, the man trying to persuade her, and not at her, my frail Babli.  I was looking at her with all my love and annoyance at the same time, thinking,  "Why oh why, why doesn't she see, what he was doing, what he was getting her to do?"   She had always been delicate, not that she didn't have enough flesh on her bones, but it were her bones, that were the ones so light, paper like, making her a paper machine doll.  The first night, when she had come in the room, in her bridal attire, I had fallen head over heals in love.  It didn't matter who she was waiting for, and who would be sharing the saffron laced milk in the silver glass with her that night, I

  While packing up a few summer clothes etc, I was thinking, just one more cupboard in the garage would have been good!  We always have just one thing extra for which we need that space, as  to make us happy and  comfortable. Just a bit more Because if we had just a bit more Time, or money or space!!  Never enough,  Just a bit more!   

  Having a child and that too a daughter, the ultimate walkie talkie doll, that's all yours, to play with, to sleep with, to hold,  is such a blessing.   Then if she has kept you waiting for a few years,  before getting realised into reality, from a heart's ultimate desire, is a dream come true!  Yes, that's what had happened, when our dream had materialised  30 odd years ago. The love, the wishes, and the desires  that had all been locked in our hearts with this one dream, had all opened up like a dam, to pour out and cascade into a stream of pure blissful love and true happiness,  drenching every part of our world  blooming into the most  magnificent gold, pink, peach, and  silver tinged fragrant flowers.  And imagine the tenfold happiness that I have experienced when my doll brought in her doll in our life.  A gift that keeps giving, love and happiness of having a daughter!  Happy birthday dear Nishtha.  (Nishtha's birthday today). 

Yes, tomorrow, the country will move to tomorrow!!  This is what our PM had said a couple a years ago about the bright future, he envisaged for this country, and recently, he has been reported to have said, "our alliance with the United States is our past our present and our future"! What an empty hyperbole, too much noise, signifying nothing!  and don't even start me on bible flaunting Trump!!  Such meaningless chatter is  tolerated when it is a marketing slogan or a political statement  which aims to persuade rather than inform!!   The writers choose words which sound powerful but actually with not much substance.  Leaders use these words  even if these actually don't say anything new or meaningful. And the irony is, even the listeners know this but still get swayed.  That's the power of political rhetoric!!  Ethos Character - building trust, binding oneself with the people Lagos Logic - facts figures  Pathos Feelings - evoking  emotions, values The three tend t

Celebrate the renewal of the Earth!!  Arising from an energy hungry society,  this cluster of our needs  to till, to toil and tow away every inch of this Earth's womb. that we have been scavenging for centuries This hunger of ours,  for more, and more,  is a greed,  is a thirst,  like a bottomless pit,  that never fills unlike a tomb!   Remember, the flint fire days,  when you and I started fighting over stones,  yes, this love affair of ours that began with stones  this lust  has driven us for centuries,  to such lows,  taking our mother Earth’s inner parts apart digging out all kinds of stones,  drilling petro-wells  mining carbon and minerals for battery  cells only s o that, we can consume more,  we've been  burning holes into its crust  ! We’ve been deaf  to the voice of wisdom,  that we love to ignore  it says:  Look above your greed and lust, you fool, and listen to the roar,  the rumble coming towards you,  the lioness is on the

Yes, the first question, I'm getting from my friends,  after I told them about getting the vaccine for Covid 19,  "which one did you get?" As if it was my choice!!  Actually a few even asked me before and some, after I got my jab Why did you get/are you getting the vaccine? Or told me What is/was the hurry? The point is that I shouldn't get it I should delay it I should get a different one!  These issues arise, when there is mistrust for what the government is doing What the scientists/pharmaceutical companies say/do So where can we find the truth? The true answer, if it exists? What should I do? Get it or not? This one or that one? Now or later? Answers are not there but these questions are there!  And these divisions of people, based on their different opinions, theories,  ideas of what is the truth,  rock our decisions.  We are never sure if this, or that is, the right answer,  but yes, just trying to do what as a citizen of a democracy needs to do, that is my resp

  Is it the dawn approaching,  or the day setting! Is it the new beginning,  or a beginning to an end is beginning? as creation, within, without and all around,  wakes up in destruction! And bemused by this society’s dream of continuity, and preservation  while it is lost in a chaos,  I have been thinking - - if Kalki, the Avatar of redemption, we have been waiting for the millennia, is already here,  in the Trimurti incarnated [1] ! [i] Brahma, we were created Vishnu,  we were preserved Shiva,  WE destroyed! Yes, we messed up big time, and now we need to fix it,  or what about destroying it completely, and starting anew, afresh,  a Punaarambh, a new beginning!   (Neera, 2014)   In Indian mythology  Trimurti  is the combined three powers (in a cycle of Creation, Preservation, and Destruction) representing earth, water, and fire in the form of three gods,  Brahma –creates,  Vishnu- maintains- preserves  Shiva- destroys.   Fire destroys life, and is responsible for the destruction of the

This idea came to my mind today that how cultures can change, enriched, or get lost, just in one generation. It was a beautiful day today, blue skies, golden sunshine, and we were at a park in Western Sydney.  Especially it being the Sunday of a long weekend in winter, the park was full of people; everywhere, there were group picnics, grown ups sitting down, while children were biking, or just running around;  aroma of different types of food, colours of winter flowers, and falling leaves filled my senses, so sitting at our spot on the picnic rug, near a small lake, with the soothing sound of a water fountain, it was a perfect setting to close my eyes, and lie down to soak it all in.  I heard people sitting close by, a chattering group of 4 or 5 couples, men and women having lunch, joking around laughing, I could catch a few words of English, but couldn't understand their language, it was may be Telugu.   Then their children arrived from their play, and started running around, speK

My glass is half empty or half full That's all in our mind, our attitude  Or on the other table,  yeh khyal kyun satata hei?  Why this thought troubles us, theirs is still half full While mine is half empty!!! 

  Standing still, lost and aimless, burdended with the heavy load of our shared past, I was stooped in my miseries, when a tap on my shoulder m ade me turn around and look up to see the green g old bird of my tarnished memories, f lying away with a wounded wing, t o plummet into the darkness of oblivion. And suddenly, the night was over!!

Yes, if we keep taking and taking, even a sea can disappear.  Thanks to our collective greed, we have the disappearing Dead Sea, in Israel.  How is it disappearing? What does 'disappearing' mean? Disappearing from whom? And why is it disappearing? Another of the catastrophic result of human greed!

To hug, or be hugged,  It is a nice feeling, for most of us.  Hugging someone we love,  a child, a parent, a sibling, a friend, and a lover, because we love them. WE want them to know, we are here, we are for them, that it is OK.  Then hugging ourselves, when happy, or worried, or just cold.  To assure ourselves that it will be OK.  Then hugging a tree! an environmentalist's , a conservationist's weapon in front of  greedy developers,  builder's bulldozers! A tradition of hugging a tree, started as a  Chipko  movement, by a tribal lady in north India, she stood there to front a developer, hugging a tree, trying to save it from getting uprooted,  Yes, hugging a tree, to tell it, that we are here that it will be OK? Then hugging a tree to get strength from it, to connect with nature! To know that it is here, for us, and that it will be OK!   

In recent times, the market value of  a degree in a course which requires one to be good in mathematics, science, and engineering, has risen above all other subjects.  Now a days, a degree in these technical subjects, in comparison to a degree in Humanities, art and literature, and history,  is much sought after, and governments in most of the world are encouraging students to take up these subjects.  In Australian universities, fees for courses in STEM subjects, Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, are going down. This is good, but then fees for subjects which fall under humanities, history, the arts, literature, and philosophy are rising, which means less students would take up these subjects. These subjects are not considered market friendly, no job growth in these areas, as these are not demand areas. And, we are preparing students for growing markets, to match the needs of employers. So are we preparing students for future jobs, right?  But what future are we talking a

Someone sent me a two liner about life and those we value  in our life. Some people are in our life and due to those people,  life is worth living,  The value that we put in our  relationships, And this gratitude, that we feel,  there is a need to express this feeling. There is a need to translate this sentiment into words  There is a need to say to someone  what we feel in our bones,  yes, and to say,  Life is worth living because of you.  (Wedding anniversary today) 

Time, they say, waits for none and the tide doesn't rise for everyone! Though, time, am sure, favours  the chosen ones and the tide, for sure, sweeps them up, towards making the right  decisions!!  You and I are such lucky ones! Nothing was hard to be onerous we were born in the right homes, maybe  our stars were generous,  and bestowed on us were also  the blessings of health, and happiness, smiles of love and fortune!! But not on everyone  fortune smiles,  dear! Without any fault of theirs they didn't get what you and I take for granted a safe home, a secure future, not even a sure routine!! So be kind to those, whom, chance hasn't favoured. Neither has time nor tide has  pushed them up. They did not have opportunities, or choices that we had, choices, which turned out to be the right ones! Maybe they didn't have the freedom to avail opportunities, or to choose that they yearned to be, Yes, they were not free!  Be nice to those  who struggle, and strive  even to survi

Ego.  This 'I' in us, we cannot win it over, while we try to win over everything else. Sufi poet Bulleshah writes "Eh, Bullaya, everyday, you are fighting with the devil,  but why don't you fight with your ego?  You try to gain every knowledge in the world to become an intellectual, but why don't you try to read yourself?"  All the time, you keep going to a temple, or a mosque, Why don't you try to get into your own heart!" Yes, that is so true, and worth thinking, exploring, this urge that is in us to always think of I makes us keep repeating  I, I, I, me, me, me Mine, mine, mine,  and forces us to think that  I am right I did this, It is only because of me,  I am the only one who can ... It is said that the ego shell is the hardest shell to break out of, to grow out, to get bigger than this shell, which binds you!!  As in fact this 'I' in us is nothing,  At the first sight of love, it hides At the door of almighty God, it disappears! A child

Listening to Hugh Mackay's talk about kindness vs nicety  I realised how many times,  those who hadn't been very nice to me,  had actually been quite kind. And vice versa.  What's then important? To be kind, or to be nice?  AS sometimes, if you are kind to them, you need to hurt people, and tell them the truth! 

The Survival Skills With the sun rising, the jungle rises too, stretching its limbs and twittering its wings as animals come out, after their night long rest and sleeping birds wake up too, leaving their nest in search of food and life e ach day, a test of their survival skills! The fledgling flies out of its cozy nest brandishing its green plumage, as it ventures out though the world out is still beyond its boundary there is still time before it has to find the food that its mother feeds it or what its father brings but it needs testing its wings, to learn to save itself, to dare and dodge any other bigger bird, or animal that kills!! Then as the evening descends on the tree and the songs of birds returning home, get louder, and louder as they celebrate the return of survivors, while mourning the death of those who didn't make it, the mother awaits with an abated breath, for her little one who hasn't appeared back!!! And then, tip tap, tip tap, tip tap the fledgling retur

Art and K-Mart Went to the art gallery today, and trying to park our car we realised how expensive parking was going to be,  $12 per hour or $9 per hour, that was the choice, and we needed at least a couple of hours to do any justice to the visit.  IN the art gallery, spent time  looking at the huge or the miniature paintings, the play of colours, and shade, the light and shadow, the classics, the aboriginal art, the cubism, it was all just so beautiful, educational, a taste of culture, refined and classy. and the gallery was so quiet, and serene, not many people at that hour of a working day,  then a few students from a neighbouring school arrived and started to work on an assignment, going around, looking at some paintings, and taking notes, quietly working. The cafeteria, and the small eating area upstairs, dainty sandwiches, and  Arancini  balls, washed down with chilled white wine, or steamy pots of tea, expensive, nothing was cheap!  And I was thinking of the type of