..within

..and may be it is important for a man (and a woman if you are one) to be at peace with himself before he finds peace in the world. and it is important for him to be happy with himself before he treads to find happiness in the world around..and then, as it seems, may be a man needs to live his life more within than without.

..so as it turns out, i have invariably found myself full of this very deeply felt joy when i've looked within and had a tête-à-tête about me over hot chocolate, or over the ironing board..and somehow, it has the effect of this magical healing that transforms my psyche and leaves me amazed just every single time..the creation surely is far more intelligent than we consider it to be!

closer..

so i have a new found respect for life, but it seems that it has been within me for years to be discovered today..and i have a new found respect for people; people who are not perfect, but people who moved me with what they have given me despite their imperfections; and their gift is so much larger than these imperfections that i feel blessed to realise how inconsequential and vain the very idea of those imperfections is; and they have given me something that i probably could never hav given them because i now know i'm not what they so beautifully are; they have given me hope; and they have brought me closer to life; closer to what life is about; closer to what life isnt about; closer to what really is the elixir of human joy; it's that smile of happiness; it's the smile of the soul; and i'm amazed!

for silence and more

I think I live in a world where silence, humility and politeness (all being very different from each other but no lesser to another in import) are appreciated and respected. But at times, i wonder how long can one sustain them when confronted with bitterness and a fabric of thought that does not recognize, and largely dismisses the spirit in which these traits are harbored.

Midway, i wonder if to inflate one's ego to the extent that these others and their words start to seem too small (there, down there) would help. But then somewhere, something inside me speaks up to tell me that distancing, at core, is just another form of escapism. May be, then, what one needs to do is lend a period to being polite, and if confrontation is what people want, may be you should let them have it. But then, all it may leave one with would not probably be as much a sense of triumph as it would be of bitterness.

And then, it gives me some solace to know that what you can do is forgive people for their ignorance, to whatsoever extent they interpret your silence as weakness, to whatsoever degree they call their vocal vehemence a signature of liberalism and what they advocate as the better mantra for life; for what they otherwise ask for, is not good, is not bad; in this beautiful world, it's plain ugly.

For the braves of the world are not who have a laugh manly in the times of comfort; its those who have smiles on their faces in the times most difficult; for it's not those who can feign strength by measures appreciated by this illusioned world; it's those who derive strength from their spirit within; for it's not those who are strong with arms and hence can fight; its those who aren't, and still brave the arena.

For a man who pushes himself to achieve what he had always been told was a impossibility, has so much trust in himself that he offers no explanation for what he has made of himself. And no matter how much may the world mock at him, he smiles within, content and confident, and offers only his silence because he knows, for him, it equals his spoken word. And it's not complacent self deception nor is it a dash of confidence overboard, but a recognition deep within himself that the unknowing world very efficiently fails to afford.

If only this world at the shore had not evolved into a place which recognizes the strength of an ocean ever so calm only when it rages, i wonder if it would have been a better place to live.

Where is all of it going?

Now, as i stood there on the traffic crossroads, one of these new what-do-you-call-them-led-screens(?) was enlightening the crowds about fifty thousand motorists that had been fined (no they didn't mention in past how many years) for honking (gosh! not sure when did that start happening in this democracy-hai-bhai) (i know am putting in too many '-'s and '('s and ')'s in here but may be i can request you to bear with an old friend-an old habit!)

Now we aren't discussing the morality of honking here; so, as i stood there, i wondered where does all the sound in the world go? i understand its a form of energy and it keeps changing forms; from light to heat and-i'm not too sure-to mass and so on and. But then, where does that every honk sinned go? Since the universe is 'the universe', technically, nothing enters or leaves the system. This would then, as per first law of thermodynamics, mean that energy in the universe is constant.

So brethren, (which includes sistren since some conference of Southern Baptists in Memphis; wow, google rocks!), let us understand whether honking (and other sounds aka noises, if u extrapolate the query) is a temporary pollution with some lasting impressions on minds of the listeners-like loss of sanity, inexplicable irritation, ranting, et cetera-or is it really doing something more to our universe. You always thought there was something sinister going on in this world that you didn't know about, didn't u?

Is this it?

As i travel through the journeys of life, i wonder what is it that ultimately decides where we land up in the pursuit of our, well, pursuits. And then, it makes me think that may be it really depends on how much of-life-or-death do we identify the object of our pursuits as. And may be it is this one small exercise in some corner of our mind-howsoever unwittingly it may happen-that ultimately decides everything.

Coz when you want something really bad, you go that extra mile, you don't go that mile on the left-or-the-right coz you know it won't take you there. You shamelessly hitchhike coz you know you want to be there. And you know-you cannot not be there.

..and of all the reasons that make men and women fail in their endeavors, the one that i have had closest brushes with is frontloaded complacency. This one trait which makes a perfectly fatal duo with procrastination could very well be that one master switch that can turn off the lights-how much ever uncle Iglesias Enrique wants us not to do so! So it may sound more of a hyperbole, but i happen to believe that complacency has great potential to be the mother of most, if not all, failure.

er..is this it?