Giraffe

 Some days you write something and your friends and family support and encourage your thoughts. It does feel good. Then a few tell you that your words have given them some direction, you feel blessed and a bit scared, if you know someone is following your thoughts and that is a big responsibility.

One of such days you will get a question, a suggestion a feedback that will calrify your own thoughts and at times may implore you to dig deeper.

My last post 'Anchor and Port' had similar effect. 

( please read Anchor-and-Port here, before continuning as there is some connection)

In the quest for anchor and port some one asked, '" what if I am not sure of my port or my anchor." Someone else casually said, "what if your port is not available" remember that is an external thing.

While I was contemplating those  situations, I faced a personal storm, not externally devestating, but close to my heart; thats when my anchor got painfully damaged ( some of you may know what situation am I refering to) and my port was occupied. I had no where to go. 

And then I learnt about Giraffes. Read further and trust there is a connection.

In African Savanah Giraffe is the tallest land animal  ( actually anywhere in the world they are the tallest land animal ). That sounds great, till the Savanah is hit with a storm. 

Running in strom with flash floods, slippery rocks, muddy terrain can mean accidents and severe injuries. Also where would they run to, no rock, no tree no cave is big enough to hide their ultra tall bodies. Yes, I repeat, how ever fierce the storm gets Girrafes have no where to hide. 

So what they do instead is that they stand, with their legs fixed firm to ground, to give them extra  balance. Their necks streched out to face the winds and the rain. And I am assuming their eyes closed. They endure the storm by standing still and facing it. Beast vs nature, not fighting, not complaining, not crying just facing it. I think they are respect the storm while they face it and also hold on to an unshakable faith that the storm is going to pass, sooner or later.

Lesson was learnt, right when needed, when my anchor and port were not there and the storm had roared. I knew what to do. But not panicking during a storm, keeping unshakable faith, and staying unmoved take intent and practice to learn and adapt. I will not give a score to how I fared against my Giraffe class lesson, but I can say, the teaching is worth trying.

PS: Learnt from Giraffes so standing still, facing the storm yet wishing for availability of my anchor and port urgently  🙂

PPS: I dont have any data or knowledge on what percent giraffes go through stroms unscathed, but I am sure some do as they always follow the same way, knwoing that there is merit in it. And also knowing that however fierce a storm is, it always ends.

Anchor and Port

Think of a ship sailing in the vast ocean. You are on that ship. The weather starts to get rough. The waves start pounding against the vessel and the vessel starts rocking. Everything falls under the mercy of the wind and the waves. If you have been on ships frequently or is this is your first time, your instincts tell you that you must move inside (Away from the wind and waves) and the vessel needs to be stabilized. One may also think to move ship away from storm, but moving at speed during such  events can accelerate the destruction and even cause total annihilation of the vessel. 

If the ship continues to rock then the things on the ship will start moving, getting tosses, bumping into each other and compound the damage that the storm could have caused.

What the ship needs is the Port and an Anchor. 

What if I ask you to move this imagery inward. What if your mind is the ship, a life situation is the storm, what would you do then? Do nothing, and the waves of problems combined with winds of thoughts continues to rock the vessel of your mind causing the peace, health, relationships, finances to start colliding and collapsing. Visualize a ship damaged in storm, the mind and life, if not attended to, can be severely damaged in the same manner. Any avoidance or attempt to move away can deepen the destruction.

Just like the ship, One needs the Port and the anchor. 

Your Anchor, like the ship's is within you. A habit, a hobby, a vocation. Some sing, some read, some hike, some play, some talk, some write, some cook, some swim and so on. The challenge of our times is that many don't truly know what their anchor is. The hobbies, sometimes are built based on in-vouge trends, social adjustments or for fitting in. However your true anchor is hidden in you. To discover it before a storm, is always the wise thing to do. Remember it should give you true steadiness ( happiness) and not just a social gratification. One may have more than one anchor, just like a ship.

Now you know your anchor so it is time  to talk about the Port. 

Like the ship, the port is outside of you. A place where you feel rested and refueled. 

Usually your shore is a person, a place, a location. It can be your spouse, your parents, your sibling(s), your friend(s), your home, your temple, your gym, an eating joint, a park, a coffee shop or so on. 

Again a ship should know its port before the storm. As an individual make sure that you know your port, where you can refuel for life. 

The journey does not promise calm waters, smooth sailing and eventless trip for 100% of the time. But a ship that have firm knowledge and confidence in their port and their anchor can survive storms with minimum harm. 

Defying Norm .... and life

The most basic thing, germination of a seed starts by defying the law of gravity. The primary base of all life getting tethered to the surface of the spherical earth hanging in vast space. The seed starts growing into a sapling by defying that very law and shooting its excessively fragile limbs towards the sky to break free from the soil crust and start feeding on the sunlight. Life starts with defying the basic law of nature. Seed’s intention is not anarchy; it is targeted defying of the law and having a clear path on which direction to move in. Not a fluke, not the idea of just not following, but defining a totally different yet committed path. The sapling never thinks of growing lateral to the ground, but away from it and towards the sky. It does not even care which way it was buried in the ground, there is no right or wrong way of putting the seed in soil. You sow it upside down or right side up, it will still grow in the right direction. While it does that, it keeps on strengthening its grip on the soil to help it stay grounded and not just go awry. 

"Yes, that is the seed and the plant and the tree life, we humans are different" says the skeptic in the mind. But are we truly different? Human life (and all animal life) starts in the womb, with the fetus being submerged in a viscous liquid, for not a few seconds or minutes, but for a whole 9 months for humans (varies by species). 

No oxygen mask, no plugs on nose, ear mouth, no restraints or support equipment, just floating in viscous liquid and drawing strength from that to grow. Think of a non-amphibious earth dwelling animal being submerged in any liquid for a period longer than a few minutes, the only result will be death. So life starts with a phenomenon that otherwise is fatal by natural laws. 

Life starts with defying what otherwise is universally accepted as a norm.  

I am just thinking, can this ideology be applied to when one is feeling stuck, when it seems there is nowhere to go? After all in such a situation a lot of time one might be thinking of nothing but a ReStart. 

Today, I may have no clue how, but I feel this might work, so to all who are feeling stuck and contemplating a restart. May be defying some so called/ imposed / self-imposed kind of norms may be the way. But like the seed, having a clear new vision and direction.

I will share my experience if I ever get in that boat and in return, I would hope you share yours.

मेरी कहानी तो यहीं से........

You may know this about me. This probably is my most obvious aspect. Just restating that through these lines.. I hope when you read the last line you may remember when I told you that.....

Also here is the audio link if you prefer to hear 

AUDIO - Kahaniya. Mp3

 

 कहानियां हैं

 कुछ पढ़ी हुई  कुछ सुनी हुई
 कुछ पढ़ी सुनी  के बीच
 मन में ही बुनी  हुई
 मन  सच्चा है सच्चाई से बुनता है
 कुछ रोना, कुछ हंसना, कुछ बातें 
अच्छी भी  बुरी भी, पर चुनी हुई है 

 
कहानियां हैं
कुछ पढ़ी हुई  कुछ सुनी हुई

कुछ पढ़ी सुनी के बीच

 मन में ही बुनी हुई

तुम जानते तो हो मुझे  फिर भी पूछते  हो?
मैं कहानियों में ही जीता हूं, यह तो मानते हो
मुझे लगता है 
कहानियां ही इंसानियत की असल रू होती है 
तुम सही मानो या गलत यह तुम पर छोड़ा
पर मेरी कहानी तो यही से शुरू होती है 

Marble and History

 I remember wandering through the Louvre a few years ago, stopping in front of sculpture after sculpture and whispering the same awestruck line: “What a beautiful piece—it is as if the artist breathed life into marble.” I’m sure many of you have said something similar. Mostly, these sculptures appear serene, flawless, almost divine. Yet beneath that perfection lies the violence the marble endured: the thunderous strikes of hammer and chisel to break away massive chunks, the relentless tapping to carve delicate curves, the repeated blows to the same bruised spot. Only after this brutality does the artist sand, buff, and polish the stone—masking the trauma that the marble endured so the world sees only the beauty of teh sculpture .

Recently, while discussing chapters of human history with my sons—empires rising and falling, wars waged, blood spilled in the name of religion, race, territory, or sheer ambition—I found myself thinking again about those sculptures. Human history is painful, often unbearably so. And yet, our lives today are shaped entirely by that collective past.

If we imagine the world as a marble sculpture, then history’s great upheavals—wars, pandemics, natural disasters, the birth and spread of religions—are the massive blows that fracture the original slab. Each strike reshapes the world’s structure. What follows are the smaller, repetitive chiseling motions: the blending of peoples, languages, rituals, and ideas. These shape societies, spark collaborations, birth new cultures, new philosophies, new sciences—and sometimes, new conflicts that deliver their own heavy blows.

History shapes the world in two ways. First, through destruction: the wars, calamities, and crises that break the stone and force a new form. Second, through creation: scientific discoveries, philosophical breakthroughs, and evolving faiths that add new blocks to the sculpture—something impossible in literal marble, yet very real in the sculpture of civilization.

Every event is a marker, a strike. The impact on human lives is the result. An election is an event; the governance that follows is the shaping. A war is an event; the loss, rebuilding, cultural blending, and resilience that emerge afterward are the results. Conquests of the past carved the societies we inhabit today. Religious missions not only spread belief systems but also blended cultures, rituals, food and languages into entirely new social orders and at times creating new dialects and even new languages. An invention is an event; the transformation of daily life that follows is the result—wheel to gear, gear to engine, engine to automation and may be now AI.

The painful blows of history have been sanded, polished, and softened by the generations that followed, creating the ever-evolving sculpture we call the modern world. But not every strike beautified the marble. Some left cracks that never fully healed—scars we still see today. Wax fillers may hide the cracks but may not heal the pain.

Humanity has the power to learn from those fractures. We can choose not to repeat the blows that shattered us before. We can decide to chisel a better world for the generations that will inherit this sculpture. They deserve it. We owe it to them.

And if, through all the strikes and shaping, we manage to create a world that is beautiful, calming, forgiving, and strong—then each of us, as sculptors of the future, will have done our part.

जिंदगी की बात

कई साल पहले एक दार्शनिक को कहते सुना था "चर्चा बीमारी की होती है स्वास्थ्य की नहीं। हम लोग सिर्फ शिकायत की बात करते है अच्छी बातों की नहीं। (People mostly speak about bad health, bad fortune and rarely about the positive) मन माना नहीं पर ध्यान से देखा तो काफी बार यह बात सच थी. इस लिए कुछ पंक्तिया इस आदत को बदलने की कोशिश में !" 

Click Zindagi Ki Baat - Audio to listen if you don't read hindi 

कई बार शिकायत करते हैं
आज आओ खुशी की बात करें
 ग़म-ए-जिंदगी को भूलकर 
 बस जिंदगी की बात करें

दोस्त नाराज़ या दोस्त से नाराज़गी
पर दोस्त आखिर दोस्त है, तो

सब गुस्से गिले भूल भाल कर 
क्यूँ ना आज बस दोस्ती की बात करें

 बीते कल की याद हो 
 या आते कल की उम्मीद
 इन दोनों कल को छोड़ दें 
और आज, अभी की बात करें

 और कई बार शिकायत करते हैं
 आज आओ खुशी की बात करें
 ग़म-ए-जिंदगी को भूलकर 
 बस जिंदगी की बात करें

सफर-ए-लाइफ (Safar-e-life)

My new poem in hindi, for those who do not read hindi but can understand the language, I have added an audio link 

सफर-ए-लाइफ 

Click for Audio - "Safar-e-Life"

आगाज़ वही अंजाम वही

कहीं ज्यादा तो कहीं कम होगा

जिंदगी का सफर है, प्यारे

पैदाइश पे शुरू हुआ जब

तो मर के ही ख़तम होगा 

मुद्दा यह है की इस सफर में 

तुम किसी से क्या बाँटोगे?

जियोगे सफर भरपूर या बस 

यूँही वक़्त काटोगे 

अपनी तासीर का कौन सा 

हिस्सा छोड़ जाओगे

बस चले जाओगे या कोई 

किस्सा छोड़ जाओगे ?

इस सफर में कई और मुसाफिर जुड़ेंगे

कुछ साथ रहेंगे देर तक, कुछ कहीं और मुड़ेंगे

किस किस को याद रखोगे, दोस्त?

किस किस को याद आओगे?

वो हमसफ़र जिसका हर लम्हा फ़िक्र होगा 

उसकी यादों में शायद तुम्हारा भी ज़िक्र होगा?

किसी के सफ़रनामे की कड़ियाँ 

तुम्हारे सफर से जुडी होंगी 

कई मील जो साथ चले होंगे 

कई राहें साथ-साथ मुड़ी होंगी  

किसी मोड़ पे ख़ुशी की बारिश तो 

कहीं बिखरा ग़म का मौसम होगा 

आगाज़ वही अंजाम वही

कहीं ज्यादा तो कहीं कम होगा

जिंदगी का सफर है, प्यारे

पैदाइश पे शुरू हुआ जब

तो मर के ही ख़तम होगा