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

Language is the most important and  in many ways,  the only means of communicating.  And it is language  which can be the most misleading.   Or complex, mistaken, and misunderstood. 

From trailing clouds of glory, we come, and that is where we go back, as that is our home!  Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting!! Wordsworth had written beautifully about the transient nature of human life, and then also, how a child takes the place of his or her father, and life goes on.  But the father, the mother, they stay there in memories, in tributes to their life, by their children.  Though, human life is certainly a bubble in water, obliterated by the next wave.  Their lives and memories need to be celebrated! Remembering my father today, he passed away on 30th July 1983, 38 years ago.  (The lines modified from Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality Recollections, and My heart leaps up)

  Five words to be used are:  Stream Queue Cherry Brim Self  Stream of Joy  O' flow of time,  please go slowly,  O' stream of joy,  don't flow over the brim, let me contain my self first,  and be grateful for this bounty. Yes, these rows of cherry blossoms,  that promise ,  such  a harvest of  treasures !  This pure water, these fruits, and  flowers, with every trim,  that queue up, one by one, just for me, each season. Let me say my grace at least,  and acknowledge my fortune, as I partake of this  smorgasbord   of pleasures!

When mum called him to come for a snack, Teeku was very happy.  He was hungry by now, and he loved rocky road, the chocolate concoction that his mum made with nuts and marshmallow.  He was also in a hurry to get out of his play room, and check outside, how the sky was looking now. He had spent a lot of time flying there this morning, in the clouds. He waited for Saia to come with him though, and when she came outside, they both went to the kitchen.  Mum had set the table with three placemats, there was cold milk in two glasses, and a few pieces of rocky road in two small plates for them both, one for Teeku, one for Saia and for herself, she had put a cup and saucer, as she usually had her morning tea with him.  The kids washed their hands, and sat down quickly, they were in a hurry to pick up and taste the rocky chocolate pieces with crunchy nuts, and soft marshmallows. Teeku started to tell his mum about his flight, how he had flown in the clouds and had tasted the clouds which were s

 Stream Queue Cherry Brim Self Once upon a time,  there lived a young girl and  Cherry was her name,  she danced all day and all night without any shame. She had so many admirers,  who hovered around her house all day, and all night admiring her dance, and her shoes, But Cherry was lonely,  cursed to dance alone inside her house,  and dance that she did, to atone for whatever she had done in her cherry red shoes. The shoes her uncle brought her From a far And to thank him, she danced,  She was 8 year old,  and dance that she did  in  her cherry red shoes And then one day, an admirer,  from the queue of suitors  waiting outside her house,  caught her eye,  and he smiled,  tipping the brim of his blue hat  he asked her out. He was in love with her, and said, he wanted to talk with her.  and he kept calling  as he really wanted to walk with her.  But Cherry couldn't go out with him,  as she was cursed to keep dancing  for many more years,  Yes, dancing alone in her red shoes.   But at

"How does one keep going when the going gets really, really tough?"  R ecently,  I came across this hypothetical questioning of our efforts to please those, who are hard to please.  This would usually be the case in really intimate relations. One party keeps trying to please the other party, but can never do so. But they don't or can't give up! Can they?  The author was writing about how difficult  pleasing some people is, almost impossible, but we still keep trying to please them. But why? I understand this feeling, and yes, I'm also bewildered that why do we put up with so much, just to please those people, whom we can never please.  These people that we try to please, I would say,  would be mostly our f amily  members,  or very close relatives, and friends, or our superiors, and work colleagues, as I'm sure, we don't try to please strangers! So how long does one keep going, that's the question, but it is not a true question, just a hypothetical one.

T here are somethings that we just can't see, eye to eye!  For example,  WE all can't! We all can't see it the same way.  We end up with what? My story, my news, my theory  versus  Your story, your news, your theory. And then there is the truth, somewhere out there, that we see through the lenses of our own theories, yes,  I mean,  from our individual sides, and that is how we see it, how we colour it, and believe in it.  What you see, and what I see, can we just leave it?  And not try hard to convince each other to see it from our own sides.   Just accept it, what you see, or I see!  And the way how you see, or I see, or they see something.  Can we just enjoy seeing something from each other's point of view?

Teeku was eating his breakfast, when there was a knock on the door. His mum went to open the door, and brought in a little girl with her. "This is Saia, Teeku, our new neighbour!" His mum introduced a little girl to him, almost his age, height and size. Like a good boy, Teeku shook her hand and asked her, if she had had her breakfast, and she nodded her head.  All settled, Teeku took her to his play room. Saia was a bit timid, Teeku thought, so he tried to be friendly to her, passing a couple of his toys to her, to make her feel comfortable,  just as his mum had  been teaching him, through her own actions.  But Saia shook her head, as she didn't want to play with a truck or a boat, and then she saw his colouring pencil set, and smiled.  Teeku found his drawing paper roll and gave her some sheets of paper. Saia sat down on the floor, and started to draw. She knew how to draw well, Teeku thought. She drew flowers, then clouds and birds, and then invited Teeku to fill in col

Why do we try to colour our past with the colours of our present day frustrations and grievances, or our gratitude.  Because I'm angry with you today, you have actually never done anything right by me! That's the attitude.  How can we separate our past events from our present,   no matter how much they allure!  So when it comes to history,  our culture, religion, and our society,  we don’t get all mixed up!  I'm trying really hard to get a handle on our past, which is so fluid already!  How can I say anything for sure!! Just accepting the present without thinking of the past is so very difficult of course!  Oh dear, let's just try at least to be more accepting,  forgetting somethings, remembering some, and let the present take its course! 

History is written by victors,  as those who own the present,  they write the past, too!  But what happens to those who lose,  are defeated, or dead, or both,  Those who lose their past as well as their present!  What happens to their stories of their reality? They are not in history, but these stories survive,  to be told, transmitted from one generation to the next.  People might accept their defeats but they never forget!  Yes, it is history too. It is their reality, their history.  It never goes away.  That's what happened here too,  and that's what surely happened, Elsewhere  as well. 

 "You are my sunshine"!! Nishtha, my daughter sings for Maya, her daughter, and my grand daughter!   Yes, sunshine, not just a ray of sun, but a bunch of golden rays,  a galaxy of gold, a sun shower!  And I think, What a perfect life!  Maya you are our galaxy of gold! A dream come true, a new beginning!  Once again, I'm in ❤,  I feel like living, and dreaming up a new life, just for you Maya.  Happy birthday my Cookie! Today you are one , and soon you will be two and then three, growing up just like the growing moon, may you always glow with the sunshine of love!!  God bless you! 

  Forlorn, feeling empty and finding it hard to focus, Along the banks of a lost river, that I remember, used to be. Tired, and teary, and in an urgent need for some water,  I came upon a bottle of some kind, transparent like glass  but made of some unbreakable substance and no opening that I could see at a glance neither a cork nor a twist top, what kind of bottle it was? A bottle with no mouth, but somehow it spoke to me! Foggy inside, with a piece of paper with some strange letters and unknown symbols written in different colours on it, floating in it, I shook it and the letters started to melt in the fog their rainbow colours dissolving and resolving themselves, and a sound started to emanate from it Ouummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Which started to turn into a song in a language I didn’t understand But the music swayed me, and I shut my eyes, dancing to the tune, forgetting everything else, Karagre Vasate Lakshmi, Karmadhye Saraswati, Karmule tu Gov

She realised it's her own voice. She died smiling in her sleep She had the knife somewhere quick...  Keeping peace as a placeholder,  Seldom was it a stranger but   He drowned wearing a red skirt. Monkey say, monkey hear, monkey did. Penny is a cheap investment, thoughts? Teacher, my dog ate my lunch.  Teacher, my father beat me blue   Teacher, my mother cried for help. Teacher,  my dog killed him, sorry. My last day in the world ...

A talk on the abc radio, the Big Ideas, was about misinformation, bias, and the confirmation bias.  Bias I knew, but confirmation bias, what is it?  The definition of this new term was quite interesting, similar to bias, but building on it, that how listening to what someone already believes in, confirms, and reinforces their bias. And I started again to think, and explore what we want to know, or don't want to know.  In an information overload status of our mind, we are inundated with ideologues, controversial opiniated view points, or statements, and of course, they all come with evidence. And, we,  however, tend to lean towards, and believe in those statements that confirm what we already believe in. Where is critical thinking in all this ?  Most of our information, what we are reading or listening to is usually a product of some competing entities, arguing from opposite or at least quite contrasting points of view. Only because we are told by someone, whom we admire or believe

Water for what? Did you hear the noise last night? Did you wonder what it was? No, this time it was not the poor blind Bilby! and nor was it the  Black-throated Finch  this time! It was the echidna, yes, our own humble hedgehog Running around  the barbed wire, for water!  They say it can stay without water for days but for how many days, is the question!  We did manage to build the mine,  and the railway line! Have enough coal to burn the land,  and dance to the fiddle,  twice many times  for another two hundred years. But now, dying of sheer thirst,  what do I do to hydrate myself  in this parched land ! That's the question!  Five words :   Wire, Sheer ,Hedgehog, hydrate, dance

Scepticism means  Questioning,  Asking,  Enquiring, Not accepting anything at its face value  Trying to find the source of what you read/are told Doing your own research Not accepting Not relying on what others tell you, questioning!  OMG That's is unhealthy!!  Yes, unhealthy for our relationships, and friendships  yes asking why, why, how and what does it mean?   That's a bit too much to do. Too much to take in, isn't it?  Others don't like it. It is easy to just accept, Not ask No questions  No looking beyond what you are told! That's healthy for friendship & relations but Unhealthy!!  And that's not scepticism!! 

Let me just wallow in my grief,  let me be just a bit sad, let me just stay quiet  and shed some tears today! Let me stay in the dark, let me be. Just leave me alone!! And tomorrow's another day and it will be another night! The moon keeps no grudge!  It shines again through darkness It holds no grudge!!!

  We grow accustomed to the dark When light is put away. We learn to keep our eyes closed. The bravest grope a little,  but as they learn to see in the dark. either the darkness alters  or - they alter. The sight adjusts itself  to the night  without the moon! 

Why are there so many lies. And they always win  And what happens to the defeated truth?  It keeps believing in itself while others are won over by the lies.  It doesn't even know that it has been defeated!!  As when these lies arrive, circling it, the truth is unaware.  There is no need for any action on its part, as it doesn't even know, it is under attack, and in danger, so there is no need for it to be explicit, to prove itself, as there is no reason.  And the lies like hyenas come out, out to get it, the poor truth, and drag it down,  it becomes a prey to their cruel claws, but also to its own unawareness, to it's own simplicity,  naivety, stupidity!  Surprised, and shocked?  No, it gets defeated, and it doesn't even know it has been defeated!   And that's why lies always win !  And that's why truth always loses!! Truth cannot make a pre-emptive strike!!!

When Teeku saw or thought he saw something bursting out of the window, flying away into thin air, he ran inside calling his mother, but she did not answer, so he quickly came out to see, if there was any clue around the window, to tell him, about "what had flown out of the window".  He looked under the window sill, but only found a few of the broken parts of his toys. He didn't remember when he had thrown them there, but was sorry that he had.  Mum always said, "If you keep your surroundings tidy, you always keep healthy and happy", yes, if it were tidy under the window, he could have found his clue easily! He thought.  He decided to go inside and check carefully, whether his mum was still in the house somewhere. So he didn't have to worry about her flying away! He also wanted to check on the red truck, and if it was still on the floor, he planned to put it away. Well, Teeku always preferred to run rather than walk slowly, and since it was actually a bit urg

One late afternoon, Teeku was playing with his green truck in the corridor, when he heard his mum yelling,  "Teeku!! Why don't you put away your toys after finishing playing! You are going to slip on one, or one day, I will, and fly away out of the window, into the thin air!! " "Yeh, that could happen! How bad!"  He thought. Teeku didn't always listen to his mum. Though he knew what she always said about his stray toys, "Don't put it down, once you finish, just put it away!"  Well, today again, he hadn't, but soon he forgot all about it!!  After playing for a while, he decided to stop and go inside for a drink. He was thirsty, as it had turned out to be quite a warm day.  He went from the side door to the kitchen to quickly grab a carton of his favourite strawberry milk from the fridge, and came back to finish his game, as he still had quite a few rounds to make, to finish deliveries in his truck. He had a big pile of cards and marbles in o

Things will get worse before they get better!  We know that, we are always told. But how? How does it happen? Do you ever wonder? How come, we go so low to such a miserable altitude to rise again, up and flying, so high? Some law of nature, a miracle, or divine intervention?  Or just adjustment,  human ingenuity Our tendency to make the best of what we are dealt!  A desire to improve ourselves,  our behaviour to change our direction, to get better, to find a solution, to resolve! Till we make yet another blunder! 

    In the silence of my abode,  I reside the whole day,  sleeping in the quiet,  waiting for the night to move around  to grab some grub To eat and not to play. It is at night only I venture out,  looking for some food To tDte their ware something red, something  green,  fresh o stale, I don't care! Oh,  a drizzle of oil ,   I love oh, something meaty , being sizzled, yum yum! I smirk, and smile, "Would someone like me to  carve, and serve?" I offer my humble services.  Bending backward going head over heals,  or rather tilting from my antenna  to my metathoracic  legs looking forward to my share! When suddenly, b room  broom, What's this sound?   Broom, broom,  oh run !   It is the VACUUM !  5 words in August 2020

Yes, the concept of time, for example to know when it is time to wake up or to go to work and time to knock off. We live by the rules and regulations of time, the movements of the two hands of our clock, or the shiny blinking digits!  These movements rule us, our life, from birth, when to be born, to even when to take our last breath!   This morning, I was listening to a program while on my regular morning walk, about how the concept of time came into being. How people knew, before and who or what told them that it was time to wake up!  The speaker was an academic of medieval studies and was talking about his research on the history of alarm clocks! How religious singing played a part in announcing every morning that it was time to pray. He was talking of monasteries, and churches, but I was thinking about, the singing sounds from a church, or a mosque, a temple, or a gurudwara, waking up the community! The parbhat pheri , a customary ritual in villages in Punjab, a singing groups goin

Yes, that's right. Two tickets, one for Teeku and one for the mouse for their ride on a butterfly to fly to Mouseytung's party.  Teeku looked with a great surprise, when the butterfly turned its face towards them and with its yellow tongue put a little stamp of yellow pollen on the two passengers.  Wow! That's cool!  Teeku thought. He was getting very excited now. It was an easy ride, he just had to hold on to one of the straps hanging from the butterfly's back.  He looked around at the clouds and the trees, really tall ones and  waved at the birds flying around, and monkeys hanging from the branches of the trees.  He was however getting a bit hungry now, as he hadn't had any morning tea. Breakfast had been hours ago, and even then, he had not eaten enough. He had been playing with his food.  Suddenly he felt like eating his pancake, the one he had thrown and the one, the mouse had pinched.  He looked at the mouse and was surprised to see the piece of pancake still

Teeku was quite scared about falling in any hole, but falling in  this hole in a floor. somewhere in the wall of a cupboard, following, almost riding on top of a mouse with a white tail,  carrying a piece of Teeku's pancake, whom he had been chasing, he wasn't scared at all, he was excited.  And then someone had said , "A party! " Teeku loved parties.  He was just going to ask "where's the party? and "who is Mouseytung?"  But before he could ask anything, he had fallen on some kind of a floor, on top of the poor mouse,  a bit squeezy and squeaky. The mouse made a noise of being in pain, but again it started running; Teeku had no choice, but to run behind the mouse, as he had nowhere else to go!  They were still in the hole, which had now turned into a dimly lighted tunnel, but it was now getting less narrow, and soon they were out in a grassy area, and the little stones, that made the footpath, were covered with moss. Teeku kept slipping, but he kep

One fine morning, Teeku was playing in the corridor when he saw a little mouse. It was running somewhere with some food, a piece of bread or something in his mouth. Teeku followed the running mouse with his eyes to find out where it was running to, and saw it disappear behind the wall.  Teeku ran fast to the other side and he saw the mouse disappear in a cupboard, the door was shut, but the clever mouse had slipped through the gap, a small one, very close to the floor, as the cupboard was situated quite low on the wall.   Teeku lied down on the floor, and tried to look through the gap inside the cupboard. And suddenly there was a whoosh of wind, and he slipped through the door inside the cupboard, almost got squeezed in, like a flat pancake.  A pancake? But why did he think of a pancake? Oh, yes, what the mouse had stolen, was actually, a piece of his pancake that he had thrown on the floor this morning, while playing with his breakfast, as he hadn't been that hungry and!!  And now

Once upon a time, there was this little boy, named Teeku, who didn't like to eat vegetables, and salad, basically nothing green.  The green stuff, he hated it, he said. He also didn't like fruit!!  But he loved potato chips, biscuits, bread with peanut butter or Nutella,  and chocolate milk shake, all yum and chicken nuggets. And he loved snacks! He always fussed over his dinner. His mum tried to feed him cucumber or broccoli, but to do so, she had to really trick him. She would try to add broccoli with boiled potatoes and cucumber and celery sticks to his chicken meal, but he would find out and start to throw tantrums.  One day, his mum said to him, "Teeku, if you don't eat your greens, you will not be strong enough to fight the vege monster!" But Teeku didn't care, and he kept throwing his greens out of his plate  and avoiding eating fruit!!  Then one day, Teeku was sleeping, taking his midday nap, when he fell down from his bed.  But instead of hitting the

On my daily jog in the mornings, I've been seeing a woman sitting on the corner of the street next to a school. This street is a no through street for cars, only pedestrians can go through it. The first time I saw her, I was quite startled, because just as I turned the corner, from the street on the other side of the school, there was this person, right in the middle of nowhere sitting on a chair.  When I got closer, I realised, it was not a chair, but an extension seat jutting out from her walking frame.  She must have come there with great difficulty, walking with this apparatus from one of the houses close by, and then getting tired must have sat down there. I had thought.  She was quite a frail looking woman, maybe in her late 70s, but not sure, as her hair was covered under a scarf and she had a mask on her face. Her eyes were big and they followed me, may be, till I got to the other end of the street.  I turned to check  but she had lost interest and was looking ahead again,

P ollen, stretch, android, acute, nymph. Meeting a real person Is it the acute pain of losing an illusion Or the sharp relief of being disillusioned! This sheer suspension of disbelief, that comes from coming face to face with t he simplicity, and the rugg ed beauty of a person, A null and void of falsehood, Yes, coming face to face with the truth, the honest truth! When you meet a truthful person simple, and ordinary, concrete, and solid, to believe in whom, no stretch of imagination is needed, and no pollen of fancy is require d to conjure up this real human being, who is neither a nymph nor an android! Just a real person, that you can believe in!! 5 words July 2021