This incident happened a decade back when I was in my first year of college. I was leading a flood relief campaign on behalf of my college. The aim of the campaign was to collect fund from the local residents and send it over to a place called “Orissa” to help people effected by floods.
On that particular day I had stepped onto about 50 houses, with a banner and a box, asking for donations. At last I stepped into a locality where poor people lived, just for the sake of covering an entire region as part of the campaign. An aged person started running towards me after looking at the banners of the campaign. He escorted me to his so called home which was nothing but a thatched roof supported by four mud walls. He leaned towards a small, so called, shelf and picked a kitty box. A kitty box was something I used to save money when I was a kid. The old man broke the kitty box and gave all that money as donation.
I do not even know the name of that old man but I will never forget the smile on his face when he broke that kitty box. He had a heart to donate his entire life savings to help those people of his nation who were suffering. Donating thousand bucks when you have a bank balance of a million is not extra-ordinary but donating all of one’s life’s savings was indeed extra-ordinary. He is not a figure in arts, literature, politics or business but he is the figure I most admire and will keep admiring for the rest of my life.
That was the day my thought process about charity changed. It does not matter how much you contribute but the intention to contribute matters.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Bangalore at Midnight
A lonely walk into a silent night had always been something I wish for again and again. I still remember those days when I used to jump out of the college hostel gates at midnight and walk on those silent roads bordered by giant trees with mild chill breeze brushing over my face. I have been searching for that experience and finally get it now in Bangalore. You can see two extremes in this city: a dusty, choking day and a silent fresh midnight. Every soul here has a tiresome travel to reach office/college/school, gets tired fast and finally sleeps early but this is the time I force myself to be awake. I sit at home waiting for the buzz outside to end. I keep waiting until the time arrives when a cop roams around my place with a whistle in hand. I put on my jacket and step outside to take a walk. A silent lonely walk with a mild cold breeze and every tree on the borders seems to relax. I look up to find the moon and sometimes it comes out to see me with shiny fireflies sparkling around. You can get lost in thoughts as you walk leaving behind everything you have been worrying about and try feeling what a fresh midnight has in store for you.
The same thing always forces me to book for night shows in theaters. I watch the movie with an excitement of walking back to my place on silent lonely roads. All street lights shine so bright, all floras looks greener, all roads are empty, all shops closed and of course all robbers out there ready to grab me. Anyway nothing frightens me unlike my friends who dare not to go out on these Bangalore roads at late nights. What can anyone rob out of empty pockets?
Perhaps, the city has a different color at night and nothing can stop me from this lonely bliss at midnight. How can anyone rob my bliss in solitude?
This city would have been a silent, peaceful place if the IT industry had not invaded it. Still, I can feel the peace at least at nights. People here fail to realize the uniqueness of this city. Not many places have a fresh midnight such as this one. I do not know how to describe this uniqueness. My crazy liking to stroll at nights makes me take a night stroll at any new place I go to but nothing parallels a lonely midnight walk in Bangalore. Felt like writing this blog after coming back from my usual midnight walk. There is lot to explain about it but it’s so abstract for me to describe so you can try it out for yourself when you get a chance, of course with empty pockets and a stun gun if you have.
The same thing always forces me to book for night shows in theaters. I watch the movie with an excitement of walking back to my place on silent lonely roads. All street lights shine so bright, all floras looks greener, all roads are empty, all shops closed and of course all robbers out there ready to grab me. Anyway nothing frightens me unlike my friends who dare not to go out on these Bangalore roads at late nights. What can anyone rob out of empty pockets?
Perhaps, the city has a different color at night and nothing can stop me from this lonely bliss at midnight. How can anyone rob my bliss in solitude?
This city would have been a silent, peaceful place if the IT industry had not invaded it. Still, I can feel the peace at least at nights. People here fail to realize the uniqueness of this city. Not many places have a fresh midnight such as this one. I do not know how to describe this uniqueness. My crazy liking to stroll at nights makes me take a night stroll at any new place I go to but nothing parallels a lonely midnight walk in Bangalore. Felt like writing this blog after coming back from my usual midnight walk. There is lot to explain about it but it’s so abstract for me to describe so you can try it out for yourself when you get a chance, of course with empty pockets and a stun gun if you have.
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Chaos theory
Random things happen seeming to have no connecting pattern but some point in time a clear pattern emerges revealing a deterministic sequence.This effect also came to be known as the butterfly effect.
The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)
This is something applied to weather.
This is a theory studied in physics,philosophy,maths but after a careful observation I begin to believe that chaos theory is something evident in each of our lives.People having a good memory and an instinct to relate random events would be able to derive a pattern from chaotic events in their lives.If a pattern is identified from past events,the same could be used to predict their future events.
Still thinking in depth on applying the chaos theory to my life,let me see how it works....
The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)
This is something applied to weather.
This is a theory studied in physics,philosophy,maths but after a careful observation I begin to believe that chaos theory is something evident in each of our lives.People having a good memory and an instinct to relate random events would be able to derive a pattern from chaotic events in their lives.If a pattern is identified from past events,the same could be used to predict their future events.
Still thinking in depth on applying the chaos theory to my life,let me see how it works....
Saturday, November 7, 2009
A Good Song
I've been so many places in my life and time
I've sung a lot of songs I've made some bad rhyme
I've acted out on stages
With ten thousand people watching
But I'm singing this song for you
I know your image of me is what I hope to be
I've treated you unkindly but baby can't you see
There's no one more important to me
Baby can't you please see through me
Cause I'm singing this song for you
You taught me precious secrets of the truth witholding nothing
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better and if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding
I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I love you for in my life you are a friend of mine
And when my life is over
Remember I was singing this song for you
You taught me precious secrets of the truth witholding nothing
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better and if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding
I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I love you for in my life you are a friend of mine
And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
We were alone and I was singing this song for you
We were alone and I was singing this song for you
I've sung a lot of songs I've made some bad rhyme
I've acted out on stages
With ten thousand people watching
But I'm singing this song for you
I know your image of me is what I hope to be
I've treated you unkindly but baby can't you see
There's no one more important to me
Baby can't you please see through me
Cause I'm singing this song for you
You taught me precious secrets of the truth witholding nothing
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better and if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding
I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I love you for in my life you are a friend of mine
And when my life is over
Remember I was singing this song for you
You taught me precious secrets of the truth witholding nothing
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better and if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding
I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I love you for in my life you are a friend of mine
And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
We were alone and I was singing this song for you
We were alone and I was singing this song for you
Saturday, October 31, 2009
What do Gods wish?
Do you know something that walks on four legs at dawn, on two legs for the rest of the day, on three legs at night and then goes to sleep, wondering why the hell did I walk right from dawn? I think that something walks just because everything around it does the same. It sees everything around walking on two legs and so tries to do the same but can only crawl on fours. It keeps crawling until it can walk on twos. Then everyone around keeps running for something so even it starts running. Mostly, does not get what it runs for but sometimes gets what it runs for and feels happy about it. Keeps running all the day until the day ends, gets tired and now walks on threes. It cannot run anymore. Even then it keeps walking on threes until it falls down on earth breathing frantically. Then starts wondering why the hell was I walking and running all along. Ironically, its only after falling onto earth it looks around to see how many of them were walking and running along with it. At that point a realization happens. The realization proves that it was fun to have walked as a group than all alone!!!!
That something is none other than YOU and ME. You and me crawled on fours when born, will continue walking on twos for the rest of our lives and will walk with a walking stick when old. Certainly, I do not understand what Gods wish when you and me keep walking like this?
That something is none other than YOU and ME. You and me crawled on fours when born, will continue walking on twos for the rest of our lives and will walk with a walking stick when old. Certainly, I do not understand what Gods wish when you and me keep walking like this?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Last ten minutes of life
I have been thinking about those ten minutes right from the day I heard a dying
person say "I see my mom, she is asking me come". People around me put forward a hypothesis that ghosts of forefathers have come to accompany the departing soul. That was not the only time I had heard of such an explanation. There were a couple of such occasions wherein I have heard of such incidents - a dying person sees some dead person from his/her past life in those last ten minutes.
Those who hate philosophy, this blog is for you .Of course, why should everything in life be looked at in a philosophical perspective. I have seen a lot of episodes about ghosts in "Discovery" but each episode relates in some way or the other to some science. There are incidents which cannot be explained scientifically. I do not deny that either but after going through some scientific journals I could find a convincing answer about those last ten minutes of life. Those journals explained some concepts of human brain, conscious and abnormality.
At the same time I put forward a poll on a website asking people what they would do in their last ten minutes. The most popular answer was "What do you need in your last ten minutes rather than hug the person you loved the most in the whole of your life?” According to me that was the best answer and my answer too. It was the same answer that was given a scientific perspective by some journals.
When the body starts to cease its functions one by one, the sub-conscious mind knows what is happening. The pulse starts declining; the heart knows what is happening. Then, the heart craves to see the people it loved the most in the whole of its life. If that most wanted person is alive ,he or she would be there to hold on but if that person is already dead then there is no way to see him/her. Fortunately, those last moments the sub-conscious cannot digest that fact and something abnormal happens. This abnormality is called "hallucination”. In a normal human, brain is the master and subconscious mind is a side stick. Those last ten minutes the subconscious becomes the master and instructs the brain to project an image of the person the heart wanted to see .Its obvious that parents are the ones everyone spends their important part of life and so a majority sees them in the last moments.
In some cases the person seen in those last ten minutes might be "The crush" of tenth standard. Who knows? Something realized very late!!!! Perhaps it’s possible that people discover the love of their life only then, as seen in movies!!!!!
Don't be the person of this category. May be, think of those moments right now and get an answer right now.
Then I started pitying people such as soldiers, warriors, revolutionists etc..,Who do not even have that privilege of "The last ten minutes”. Those are people who might get killed in a fraction of a second and neither the brain nor the subconscious mind has the time to project any images. Perhaps they do not even know what happened.
We keep talking about mysteries around us and the irony is that each part of our body is itself a mystery in its own way.
person say "I see my mom, she is asking me come". People around me put forward a hypothesis that ghosts of forefathers have come to accompany the departing soul. That was not the only time I had heard of such an explanation. There were a couple of such occasions wherein I have heard of such incidents - a dying person sees some dead person from his/her past life in those last ten minutes.
Those who hate philosophy, this blog is for you .Of course, why should everything in life be looked at in a philosophical perspective. I have seen a lot of episodes about ghosts in "Discovery" but each episode relates in some way or the other to some science. There are incidents which cannot be explained scientifically. I do not deny that either but after going through some scientific journals I could find a convincing answer about those last ten minutes of life. Those journals explained some concepts of human brain, conscious and abnormality.
At the same time I put forward a poll on a website asking people what they would do in their last ten minutes. The most popular answer was "What do you need in your last ten minutes rather than hug the person you loved the most in the whole of your life?” According to me that was the best answer and my answer too. It was the same answer that was given a scientific perspective by some journals.
When the body starts to cease its functions one by one, the sub-conscious mind knows what is happening. The pulse starts declining; the heart knows what is happening. Then, the heart craves to see the people it loved the most in the whole of its life. If that most wanted person is alive ,he or she would be there to hold on but if that person is already dead then there is no way to see him/her. Fortunately, those last moments the sub-conscious cannot digest that fact and something abnormal happens. This abnormality is called "hallucination”. In a normal human, brain is the master and subconscious mind is a side stick. Those last ten minutes the subconscious becomes the master and instructs the brain to project an image of the person the heart wanted to see .Its obvious that parents are the ones everyone spends their important part of life and so a majority sees them in the last moments.
In some cases the person seen in those last ten minutes might be "The crush" of tenth standard. Who knows? Something realized very late!!!! Perhaps it’s possible that people discover the love of their life only then, as seen in movies!!!!!
Don't be the person of this category. May be, think of those moments right now and get an answer right now.
Then I started pitying people such as soldiers, warriors, revolutionists etc..,Who do not even have that privilege of "The last ten minutes”. Those are people who might get killed in a fraction of a second and neither the brain nor the subconscious mind has the time to project any images. Perhaps they do not even know what happened.
We keep talking about mysteries around us and the irony is that each part of our body is itself a mystery in its own way.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
My friend's story but yet to be a love story- Part II
Its high time I finish Laurel's story because I am very sure that it is no more a "yet to be a love story".It has nearly taken a year for me to get to the underground reality.
Nobody could guess what was happening between Laurel and the sleek bee. My work sometimes needs help from Laurel's sleek bee and we were bound to interact. Whenever I had to talk to the bee, it always made a passionate enquiry -"How is Laurel doing?" Of course,whenever we talked this would be the first enquiry. Everyone around knew that this bee already had a king bee in some other place but still it had some corner for Laurel. I openly told Laurel about this and he denied. Then something occurred on accident. Accidentally I saw Laurel talking to the bee:
Laurel-"You look good"
Ms.Sleek-"Thanks"
Anyway this conversation is just a normal one. Appreciating somebody might not necessarily mean anything. Perhaps, might be an indication but I could not guess. You never know what lies in-between the lines. Hope you agree with that opinion of mine.
One fine morning the bee came to work and declared "I am leaving to some other place". I saw Laurel at that moment and just could not find any reactions. He gave some advice about the formalities to leave. I thought there is nothing to ado upon to help Laurel.
The bee left with a "bye bye". Laurel seemed to be normal and the bee seemed to be happy while leaving. A month later myself and Laurel went for a dinner and started talking about boys, girls and love. In a split of a second and at the slip of the tongue Laurel said,” My only bee has already left”, he looked down and then said,” it’s gone where it has to".
It was a "bang, bang" on my head. It was "bang" because I just don’t know how many more Laurels I will meet in my life. I have already seen many of them if not one of them.
Writing about Laurel, I am just trying to grapple about why human relationships are so complex. I am sure Laurel's bee had some corner for him but not sure what it was/is. Unfortunately many of us know whether a choice is right or wrong only after making the choice. Of course, I am no good at commenting at any of others choice.
Sometimes we just do not know what is happening to us and by the time we realize, it would be too late for action. Why did God create a system like this, just to break many and scar a few with memories? I say this because I have met people who keep waiting for years though they know that it is of no use.
I even met a sincere guy who feels his life is out of the groove even after years after the break up. I seldom meet him but whenever I do so ,Celine Dion's lyrics strike me "Love can just touch one time and last for a life time...., go on....".The guy still says "There is lot more in life than just this" but I know how he would keep feeling for the rest of his life.
On the other hand I also met a nice, wonderful and charming chap, who warned me saying that,
"It is bookish”;” It is fiction”;” There is nothing in this world like this”;” Be careful, don’t fall into it".
At that moment I should have told this nice chap that "You have not been loved the way you should have been and that is why you think the way you think". Perhaps, some past relationships change certain perceptions. Sometimes, I too get carried away by certain things but when doing a analysis I step out of everything.
We as humans unfortunately realize important relationships only when far apart from each other and do not realize the importance and comfort when together. That includes even Mom, Dad and your siblings. I want to say that do not let people go out of your life just like that when you realize that they are important, no matter even if it is late. That might sound easy but take it from me; it is the most difficult thing to do on earth. I say doing it is difficult because handling perplexities involved in human relationships are an enervating experience for even the tougher of the toughest.
Nobody could guess what was happening between Laurel and the sleek bee. My work sometimes needs help from Laurel's sleek bee and we were bound to interact. Whenever I had to talk to the bee, it always made a passionate enquiry -"How is Laurel doing?" Of course,whenever we talked this would be the first enquiry. Everyone around knew that this bee already had a king bee in some other place but still it had some corner for Laurel. I openly told Laurel about this and he denied. Then something occurred on accident. Accidentally I saw Laurel talking to the bee:
Laurel-"You look good"
Ms.Sleek-"Thanks"
Anyway this conversation is just a normal one. Appreciating somebody might not necessarily mean anything. Perhaps, might be an indication but I could not guess. You never know what lies in-between the lines. Hope you agree with that opinion of mine.
One fine morning the bee came to work and declared "I am leaving to some other place". I saw Laurel at that moment and just could not find any reactions. He gave some advice about the formalities to leave. I thought there is nothing to ado upon to help Laurel.
The bee left with a "bye bye". Laurel seemed to be normal and the bee seemed to be happy while leaving. A month later myself and Laurel went for a dinner and started talking about boys, girls and love. In a split of a second and at the slip of the tongue Laurel said,” My only bee has already left”, he looked down and then said,” it’s gone where it has to".
It was a "bang, bang" on my head. It was "bang" because I just don’t know how many more Laurels I will meet in my life. I have already seen many of them if not one of them.
Writing about Laurel, I am just trying to grapple about why human relationships are so complex. I am sure Laurel's bee had some corner for him but not sure what it was/is. Unfortunately many of us know whether a choice is right or wrong only after making the choice. Of course, I am no good at commenting at any of others choice.
Sometimes we just do not know what is happening to us and by the time we realize, it would be too late for action. Why did God create a system like this, just to break many and scar a few with memories? I say this because I have met people who keep waiting for years though they know that it is of no use.
I even met a sincere guy who feels his life is out of the groove even after years after the break up. I seldom meet him but whenever I do so ,Celine Dion's lyrics strike me "Love can just touch one time and last for a life time...., go on....".The guy still says "There is lot more in life than just this" but I know how he would keep feeling for the rest of his life.
On the other hand I also met a nice, wonderful and charming chap, who warned me saying that,
"It is bookish”;” It is fiction”;” There is nothing in this world like this”;” Be careful, don’t fall into it".
At that moment I should have told this nice chap that "You have not been loved the way you should have been and that is why you think the way you think". Perhaps, some past relationships change certain perceptions. Sometimes, I too get carried away by certain things but when doing a analysis I step out of everything.
We as humans unfortunately realize important relationships only when far apart from each other and do not realize the importance and comfort when together. That includes even Mom, Dad and your siblings. I want to say that do not let people go out of your life just like that when you realize that they are important, no matter even if it is late. That might sound easy but take it from me; it is the most difficult thing to do on earth. I say doing it is difficult because handling perplexities involved in human relationships are an enervating experience for even the tougher of the toughest.
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