God-Flower

The month is December and as expected the temperatures have dipped really low. It gets below freezing during the night and barely above freezing during the day. I walk with a cap to cover my head and glasses for my eyes and my chin along with a good part of my mouth hidden under the collar of my coat. The little part of face below eyes and right next to nose is uncovered and the extremely cold wind seems to be cutting through it like a razor.

The leaves fell a few weeks back, now the trees seem frozen. The birds have migrated to the warmer south. Everything is so cold, so freezing, so chilled, so…winter.

So in the middle of all this a few days back my rose bush which was decked with yellow and pink roses in the spring, and mostly deserted now; just started a small game. Though it is almost deprived of the leaves and looks mostly lifeless due to cold; but on one of its barren branches, a small rose bud grew. Rose bud; in winters; with that cold air?...Really? 

Then after a few days; despite the weather being even colder and even more hostile the bud decided to bloom as a flower. The yellow petals with pink border on each of the petals. Brightly standing in the middle of the freeze; defying all logic and all norms of the seasons. I am looking at that flower and trying to think of some logic; it looks so beautiful and yet so solitary and so strange.

GOD-FLOWER (On the leave-less Rose bush)

Now comes my little story teller with his own logic to all problems. Though I never asked; but maybe he read my mind and said, “That is the God –Flower Papa.” What? I asked. “The God-Flower; as no flower can grow when it is very cold; so God sends special blessings as this God-Flower. It is a good thing that we got this God-Flower in our yard as this means we are blessed” He said so matter of fact way that I had to believe. There are some things that are really God-Sent. I look at his face and the smile, not his usual mischievous smile; but a smile with the pride of having explained something important to his Papa. I know he didn't make it up, I know this is the God-Flower and it is obvious he knows all about God-Flowers or similar things.

Some things are really and so obviously God-Sent.

PS: Another thing that I just learnt; “God-Flower” brings the promise of God’s-Protection. Now that we are blessed with a God-Flower so we can be more confident about everything and not scared of anything; like my little philosopher is not scared of going to dark basement ever since the God-Flower bloomed. And so I went to my daily battles with more confidence; since we have the God-Flower now.

WHY?

Big Question and NO answers. Elementary School, little kids, no malice, no biases, just small, beautiful, innocent heaven sent kids. And then there must be some mischievous ones, and may be a few arrogant and stubborn ones too, but all still so innocent and so precious. Like the sprouts that will bloom as the adults of future. They are nothing but future in making.

One act of insanity or cruelty or inhumanity whatever one may call it; all that was so precious and so delicate is lost. It is lost because someone lost his mind and he had easy access to assault weapons. No one may really know why he did that. There will be theories and debates and top news for a few days maybe a few weeks and then all will be forgotten. Even the twenty kids who could have been anything in the future will be forgotten by the world, they will be just an incident in the news archives and statistics for future discussions by psychologists, school security professionals, (pro and anti) gun control lobbies. And that is the sad, painful fact of our media and social media driven so called modern life. However for the parents and siblings of those twenty kids life would never be the same. For other kids who witnessed this blood shed it will leave a scar forever on their minds. 

When the news of this barbaric incident broke; I am sure the parents of little kids all over the world got concerned for well being of their children. Hoped something like this never happens to their kids. Thanked God for keeping their kids out of the harm’s way and secretly felt guilty for thinking this way since some parents will never had their baby in their lap anymore.

What can one do to prevent such incidents? I asked a few folks, but no one could give me an answer

WHY…..

…..Did this happen?

…...No one could do anything to prevent this?

…...People so full of hate and so lacking of compassion are there in this World?

…...Such people get guns and no one notices?

……Politics is always kept above humanity and common sense?

……Common man feels so helpless in times like this?

And

 WHY NO ONE HAS ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS?

As for me I Hugged my kids tight and prayed for those Connecticut parents who may still be looking at the door and hoping that this is just a nightmare and their bundle of joy will be in their lap when they wake up.......

Some Stats:

There are an estimated 270 million guns in the hands of civilians in the United States, making Americans the most heavily armed people in the world per capita.

A Washington-based anti-gun lobby says those guns shoot more than 100,000 people a year.

READ: “Analysis: Why gun controls are off the agenda in America” WWW.CNN.COM for details

http://news.msn.com/us/experts-conn-school-could-not-have-prevented-shooting?ocid=ansnewsrel2

Inner Peace

If you cannot find it in yourself; you cannot find it anywhere else. This is the simple equation about peace. The reward of this quest is that once you succeed in finding it in yourself; then Your Whole World is at peace. So the peace is what you drive; something that is in your hands completely.

It sure sounds simple, isn’t it? But honestly it is way more complex. Complex because the most difficult beast to tame; for anyone; is oneself. However look at the brighter side, self still is not as geographically (and culturally) spread as the World is.

Now the reason I started thinking about this; I was talking to this friend of mine a few days back. This guy is from an unhappy home. His parents divorced when he was in early teens and he was kept with his dad by the court. He could never be close to his dad, in spite of his dad making a lot effort for many years to please him before totally giving up on him. For some reason both father and son; are on my good friends list.

I am talking to this guy, he is somewhat depressed and dreamingly he starts, “I don’t know! I feel so lonely, all the time. I feel lonely when I am with my dad or my brother. I feel lonely when I am at work or in my school. I feel lonely even when with friends or in parties. I think I need a whole new social setup to start feeling better.”

As good friends do, I somewhat teasingly said, “So you are lonely when with anyone you know, do you feel lonely when with strangers? How about being with yourself? Do you feel lonely when with yourself?” and before I could even smile after saying that half-jokingly, he replied with a sigh, “I don’t know!” I could see some tears on the corner of his eyes and I knew this was serious. “You should know, that is the answer that you should seek before any other answers.” I just heard myself say this to him.

The more I mused about it, the more I felt that I was on to something. May be he was always feeling lonely because he was not enjoying himself. He was not able to give himself good company and so he was seeking to fill that gap from outside and it seemed to be getting wider instead of getting filled.

I was talking while deeply thinking; and maybe that was my Eureka moment.

“You don’t enjoy anyone’s company, because you don’t enjoy yourself. And the reason for that can be the fact that you are not at peace with yourself. You have to find peace with in you. And the day you find peace within; this all will change.” Isn’t that easy! To my surprise he replied, “You are right, I will work on it”

Sure, do work on it my friend, and do teach me when you are successful. My experience so far is that the more you chase inner peace, the more unrest you get. So chasing will not get you there. Sit still and let it come to you. And again staying still is easier said than done.

It is not only people like my friend on this quest. I was watching KungFu Panda 2 with my kids. In the movie Pho the Panda tries to frantically look for inner peace. His quest for inner peace was hilarious for the audience; however any seeker would know how difficult that really would have been.

So; once the inner peace comes, your world will be at peace. All you need for this to happen is to be very still inside and outside, can you do it?

NOTE: if you have not seen Kung fu Panda 2 search for the “Inner-Peace- boat scene” video; that’s exactly how it seems J

Busy

“I have been thinking about you but didn't get time to call”- How many times we say this to our friends and family and how many times we hear this from them? I have been thinking about it lately; obviously because I am extremely time pressed these days (why else one would ponder upon a topic like this?)

Things never used to be this busy with the previous generations; I still remember while I was a kid, my parents had many friends and they always used to find time for their friends. There were festivals to be celebrated, family dinners, get-togethers being organized where you meet each other, the kids play and the grownups chat. I used to love many of those events. Even the kind where your doorbell rings late evening and there is a good family friend (with family) smiling at your door. We will always greet them with a smile not only on lips but all the way from heart to lips. And the party will start, no planning, no calling before just extempore party. I am sure many people my age would remember the evening huddle in the community; where everyone is a part of a gender& age based groups (usually a gender neutral age based group only for kids to a certain age). Everyone busy chatting, playing, gossips, jokes, laughs and at times arguments; all a part of being a part of the community. The very fabric that the spread of human life is made up of. (READ: Man is a social Animal)

But all that is a thing of the past. I don’t think anyone celebrates a sudden unannounced guest anymore. And I have not seen people having time for those parties or “daily casual community meets.” Because we; the present day people are busy people.

Busy, that is a good thing. And staying too busy to have insufficient time for social life is bad but acceptable if it is short lived. However; I see all around me; people, way too busy to have a life. We are too busy making a living that we don’t have time to live. That is unfortunate. Almost a curse. I am living that curse and it hurts. Is there a way to lift that curse? Is there a holy man or something written in the scripture or even a shaman who can help?

Our parents could do it so there must be a way. The fact is not that they were not busy, on the contrary they were very busy, mind you there were way lesser gadgets to improve efficiency on daily chores and there were limited communication means; still they had time to live. Because they made a choice to live.

For now I don’t know how I can do it, but last few months I am being so “busy” that I had no time even for my family. So no social life and no family life, just one word to define the way it all has been, “BUSY”

While writing this I want to sincerely apologize to my friends and relative for not having enough time for them in the past especially to my wife and kids for being too busy and almost unreachable for them for many months now. And also I want to apologize to myself for what I have deprived myself of.

At this time I don’t know how can I be not “so Busy” but I promise that I will work on a way and implement it soon. May be one step will be to politely returning the “Monkeys” to people (home, work, society etc.) that those belong to. Since a part of me being busy has a lot to do with carrying the “Monkeys” that are not mine#. Letting go of those may give me more time to think about additional ways to make it better.

See! I already started thinking of the ways; like I mentioned earlier; all it need is to make a choice and work on it. I should Live and not just stay busy making a living……..

Still don’t know how but I know I will. And that’ is a Promise!!!!

# I read about Monkey analogy in a book by Ken Blanchard in 2002 and used the learning successfully at that time soon after forgot about it. It just came back while writing this piece

Man who wrapped Logic in Idiocy

Anyone who grew  up in India in the eighties will have so many memories about “DoorDarshan” including the “Chitrahaar”, “Ek chiriya..”, “Malgudi days” and so on. And in those sweet memories I am sure there will be hidden somewhere a message most annoying and almost devastating at times, “Rukawat ke liye Khed hai (Sorry for interruption)”. How can anyone bear a break in a running program? So much so that anything that disrupts good program was not only annoying, but also received all sorts of expletives.

But one man not only wanted to disrupt the running programs, but do it in a way that everyone would be waiting for these disruptions. Even to think of something like this one’s sense of logic should be placed upside down. And upside –down was the only logic that this man knew and started teaching to all of us  through his upside-down interruptions in running programs; rightly calling it, “Ulta-Pulta.”

Someone on cloud nine with a huge success of an unusual (almost crazy) concept would want to cash on a success like this and built deeper roots in the show-biz. And may be our friend wanted the same, so he must have been happy to receive green light to air a full 30 minute show to be aired weekly (only frequency that was in vogue during those days). And he may have wanted it be a big hit. But how would that even try to explain why he named it the “Flop-Show?”

I will never understand why, I will never understand the logic behind such things; but I thoroughly enjoyed everything he offered. Everyone knows that he had superb comic timing and an excellent mind that would think after seeing any social issues and other problems. But the only thing that this man was in-capable of was showing anything in a sorry state. Be it the inflation or the corruption or the red-tape or anything else that people will sit on hunger strikes for. This man addressed those issues with his wit and satire mixed to perfection. Make you laugh at the day today incidents in life that most others would want you to cry about.

The genius, be it in any field can never be repeated; and the same goes for him. The sad accident that took him recently from the man kind, might have taken the future gifts that he would have been conceiving for all of us. But how ever sudden and cruel the death may be; it cannot take away what he gave to all of us over last two decades.

Jaspal Bhatti ji, I know you are not the kind who would want to rest in peace; the laughter that your wit and humor creates will be making God and all Heaven-goers laugh and disrupting the peace of heavens.

PS: Some that I watched many a times in addition to Flop Show and  Ulta Pulta; The police officer of Mahaul Theek hai, Jija ji, Ram Saran Dubey of Kuch meetha ho jaye and the list goes on….

थके हुए पथिक (Thake hue pathik)

थके हुए पथिक तेरे 

चरणों को प्रणाम |

वोह जिन्होंने हिम्मत कर के,

ड्योड़ी से बहार कदम उठाया,

वोह जिन्होंने मीलो नापी 

रास्तो को भी दोस्त बनाया,

वोह जिन्होंने अपने चिन्ह 

जाने कितनी जगह पे छोड़े,

वोह जिन्होंने परवाह न की 

राह में थे गड्ढे या रोड़े|

रिसते छालों को ढकने को 

अधरों पर रही मुस्कान,

थके हुए पथिक तेरे 

चरणों को प्रणाम।।

In the name of religion…again!!!!

And again there is bloodshed in the name of religion. How wrong, how sad, how insane? I have seen this, read about this and felt sorry for this, almost all my life. Which Country am I from and what religion I follow that is irrelevant. What matters is that I was created as the highest of all the creation; I was created a human being.

I was reading news about the recent incidents and also the comments, individual responses to the incidents as cited in the news. Sadly a huge majority of the people posting those comments are angry. Irrespective of the faith they follow or nationality they belong to. Anger seems to be the most predominant emotion these days along with intolerance. What happened to the love and the peace and harmony? What happened to the principles that were taught as a basic learning by any religion of the world?

Honest opinion, the only religion prevalent these days seems to be hatred. Any country one is from, any popular religion one follows, any holy book one may read any place of worship one may visit, but most seem to be following one religion, the religion of HATE. It is like a virus, it spreads itself. Born out of ignorance and intolerance. It is truly mediaborne, very infectious and very dangerous.

I have seen movies about dooms day and also seen shows on discovery and National geographic talking about the end of the world. They talk about the ultimate storms and tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, super bug epidemics and so many other possibilities of this world coming to an end. And seeing the news these days I feel the dooms day prophecies are not wrong and thinking that we are close to that day is not incorrect. But the source of that destruction is not going to be any of the natural calamities or storms. We, the people will destroy the whole World very soon with always spreading; media and social media fed super ignorant hate.

“With great power comes great responsibility” so I heard being said in the Spiderman movie. Social media and easy, open, unstoppable, recent (to the last second) access to information from all over the globe is a great power. We can use it to help and heal and build and grow and develop and strengthen the globe. Not only for us humans but for all what Mother Nature has given us. Thankfully a few of us, who understand the great responsibility that this great power has put on our shoulders, are doing exactly that. But a vast majority just got this power and got it for so cheap, almost free that they would not learn the responsibility that it brings. Sadly most news channels, newspapers other media providers are no exception to ignoring the responsibility that the power of global reach has put on their shoulders.

Hope it is not too late before people realize that responsibility.

Hope none of us has to see the times that Pulitzer Prize winner writer Cormac McCarthy has mentioned in his book “The Road.”

Epilogue: Looking for a savior for all and sincerely I will not even ask which popular religion figure he or she would resemble. But until  that savior comes (or may never come), the responsibility is on us. With Great Power comes great responsibility and history can tell that the power current generation has is way too great than any generation in the past had held.