A relationship unlike the rest

A few strands of trust, promises of a lifetime!

We are born surrounded with people that some cosmic artist had chosen for us to paint our spotless minds with memories and experiences. Siblings, parents, neighbors, relatives, are all decided by destiny even before we are born.

On the way of life, as we move on to find our successes and failures, joys and sorrows, we come across others who are also on the same path. Unconsciously, we judge them based on our own values and perceptions of human life and build an impression about that person in our mind.

If we are lucky, and it has been so ordained, we instantly find a channel of trust build up with someone who was a stranger just a few days ago. It is so natural that we never find ourselves making an effort to maintain that trust and bonding. It just gets stronger and stronger as we interact more.

It is then that we, again unconsciously, choose that person to share our joys, sorrows, ups and downs; unlike the destiny's choice to let us be surrounded by people not of our choosing, we choose that person to share the deepest thoughts about ourselves, the thoughts that we only can speak to a mirror!

And that person is whom we call a friend!

Friendship is that underlying purity that bonds every relationship which so ever. Teacher-Student, Mother-Daughter, Manager-Subordinate, Husband-Wife,You and God! Every relationship is not complete until an essence of friendship is present.

What is most cherish-able about friendship is that unlike all the other relations in the world, friendship exists only because the two like-minded souls have identified each other. They mean no greed to each other. No hate and no selfish motives.


They are just there for each other when needed. Truly concerned and honest. Distances and time cannot separate them and no evil soul can cause a rift in that trust.

Today, I feel proud to have had  and still have friends, moments spent with whom have become my golden memories. These memories that will always bring a teary smile on my face. Those few strands of trust so childishly exchanged on a few first Sundays of some distant Augusts have become promise of a lifetime that I am so happy to keep in spite of the distances and businesses that years have brought between us.


Consider yourself lucky if you have or ever had a friend!

Happy friendship day. :-)

Happy Birthday to you

Dedicated to those wonderful persons who have been there on my way on life to influence me in one or the other positive way. People who have been in a role of teacher-in-disguise in bringing me up and taught finer skills of being a human, a learner, a professional, a student, a friend...the list goes on.

What coerced me into this post is that while leisurely browsing my calender, I observed that few of those gem of a persons share their month of birth with this month. A very close friend, students, professional mentors, my spiritual guide, friends with whom I share many high-five moments, and a someone who is simply a delight to be around; all share this month of birth!

This also brought into perspective the fact the persons who play a nourishing role in bringing us up at every stage of life. That there are many virtuous human beings who, even while not being a part of our family, delight us no less than someone very close to oneself just by 'being there once upon a while'. Subtract the influence these people had in our lives, and we would be much less of professionals and much much lesser of persons.

People we come across impact us in one way or the other both positively and negatively. And once in a while, we all would come across a person who will influence us with one of their qualities so much so that we try to imbibe those qualities in our persona, want to be perceived like we perceive them. Or simply enjoy their company that it is never enough of being with their presence. To be in presence of someone so virtuous is a blessing in itself because such an happening needs a magical stroke of The Cosmic Artist.

Holy spirits keep on conspiring and creating opportunities to bring the learner and these teachers-in-disguise together so that the ordained treasure of wisdom may be passed on to the humble seeker.

And it is not only this wisdom that is gifted away by a teacher-in-disguise but also the shimmer to an ailing spirit by the one who emerged out of nowhere, the that last breath of courage enthused  into a tired mind by someone is no less than a Midas touch. Someone who told you that your nose is perfectly placed. ;-)  That you look fine in that color. That you are not fat. That you are doing just fine. And these words from them, you believed them with absolute trust and emerged more lively! I doubt there exists a person who does not have fond recollections of such beautiful persons that will always resound in their minds as from the ones who made a difference.

And what moment could be of more significance than the one when this journey of their lives began which was destined to cross roads with ours to drop in our laps, a Black Pearl of pure joy, enthuse new zeal, take away a self-doubt or just make our day with a heart warming smile. :-)

That is the day when they were born in this world. That is the day we should celebrate because that is when these beautiful human beings were set on to a road to these however small but pre-ordained associations with us that were going to make life of a truth seeker so very liveable.

Today may be that day in their life or maybe not but I wish to announce that I am glad that these beautiful people were born to make a difference in my life. Happy Birthday to all wonderful persons.

I hope that some day, I might be worthy of the same honor to someone else.

When that woman is around

When you catch her glimpse, your heart childishly desires her company. Even if for a moment. And what a moment that would be! The moment for which one can sacrifice an eternity. Such a heart desirous of that woman in a trance of delusion would only be conscious enough to reiterate what is deeply and truly felt towards that soul....

"When you are around, you take control of my thoughts. Freeze my actions and hypnotize me with that magnetizing aura of yours.

I feel humble, helpless, stupid! Intoxicated by your being, paralyzed by your presence. I wish to waste no time in living my life that moment. I only wish to pass every second of that moment in observing you. In living you.

A slightest gesture, a minuscule assertion of your thoughts on your face, a smallest swirl of the wind as you slowly move about observing the world your own way, a life threatening glance, are too valuable to miss.

Then comes a realization that how undeserving I am of you that I now perceive. You, who captivates my thoughts just by your presence. You, so pure and so innocent. You, so unaware of you!

How much I appreciate you, I am unable to express through my words, actions; even my thoughts seem to be immature to be able to express, if I was ever capable of, or if right words did exist, my fondness for you. My belief in you. You, as my ressurrector. Savior.

This inability of expression grows inside me. My sense of expression fails me. Desperation from this inability and a surging sea of longing fills me up. I am unable to contain it within myself, and it erupts from my eyes and trickles away.

Involuntarily, I wish I had been a bit more deserving of you..."

That poor soul has no right to complain. Only imagine the unreal, continue on the quest for real and rejoice in this unreal romance because what is unreal has more charisma and magic about it than the real thing.

Respect that woman

Dedicated to that special woman on woman's day

The very moment a man breaths his first, he is in contact with a woman, most likely first contact being a nurse and then his mother. Throughout his early life he is nurtured, cared, pampered and fed by her. She, a woman, knows what would his next thought be and ensures that his thoughts always be in high spirits. Whatever he endeavors into, she makes him feel he is a winner no matter what he has brought forth. She would even beat the earth when the toddler trips over from his own mistake. She ensures that he grows up strong, mentally and be fit to have his say in the world that he will face. She endures some humiliation at his hands to not to hurt his ego. She knows this because she has been wife to another man. She can 'think' about thoughts because she is a woman.

And man, whom nature has built strong to protect her, himself and endure the labor of hard-work to provide for a woman, so foolishly mistakes his this strength for a tool to rule the fairer sex. Even though he fails at the real world's stage, he is still stronger than the woman, louder as well. He tends to believe that she is her right, and treats her thus.

He is making a grave mistake here. For he is forgetting that the one who made him so is a woman. She has been engineering his thoughts to make him believe he 'can' even when he could not. She has cautiously self ordained this responsibility to act as a cushion for him when he falls, to pamper him when he is low and to endure him when he is enraged by his own failures showing back in his face. She is the woman.

That woman.

The woman who deserves to be seen not as a fixture at home that cooks, serves, washes and cleans. Not as a member of  opposite sex whom nature has created to satisfy man's carnal needs. Not even as a beautiful possession of a man's. Not as a member of opposite sex, the weaker race.

But as a totality of a man's incomplete self. As a person more valuable and more complete as the man himself is. If she is to obey, she has an equal right to command. If she bows, she has equal right to be respected. In bowing to her a man is not depicting his inferiority but instead his gesture just expresses his regard for a woman who has written away her own self for sake of a man whom she looks forward to be her support.

It is then when a man views his woman as a goddess who can reclaim him from all the evil and vice in his life, who can infuse a new valor into his failed will, who can tell him to believe and move forth, who's assurance is always there to comfort him for the next attempt, that he will find truly respected by the woman. He will have to use no coercion, he will not have to hide his failures with a display of rage and strength on that woman. She will understand. His ego will dissolve in thin air. He will find solace in participation from that woman in his life. Only then he will feel that his life is now complete. Only then he will feel alive and feel like to rise and fight again and again.

For such a man, she will go miles to display all the honesty, love and care she is capable of for that man who she now feels, truly believes in her. She will extend her unending support, unconditional trust and unfathomable love for such a person. So much so that he will wonder if he really is worthy of all that respect?

Yes, he is, because he has offered respect to a woman. The principle of reciprocation in a relationship is now working in favor of both.

God is happy to see his two creatures relishing the fruit of nature, life and being.

PS: I intended this post to convey something else but the thoughts took me elsewhere. I thought I should be just to the thoughts that came by naturally and above post conveys the same.

Edits
08-03-2011: Typo in the title! Thanks to Gurpreet for pointing out.

Love is...

Dedicated to all who seek the truest of Love

There were these two individuals, unknown to each other. They lived their life happily and enjoyed every moment of their life like any other individual.

Years went by and they never realized when an emptiness that was uncalled for, crept into their souls and grew inside them.They tried to fulfill this emptiness by venturing out into the world yet unknown, to look for a remedy to this feeling of hollowness. The need to get a resolve to this void sometimes became the only ruling thought in their minds. They wandered, indulged and, in their sub-conscience, prayed, in a hope to witness that one moment, that one streak of life, that will bestow a sense of completeness that they have been yearning for so long now. Looking for the soul that will relieve them from this this incompleteness which now just did not seem to loosen its grasp on their conscious selves.

In this yearning, they realized that no amount of entertainment was fulfilling enough, no cuisine was satisfying, no amount of success seemed to be stimulating and the adventure had lost its thrill. The world has just went dull. There seemed little point to continue living on.

But what they did not know was that the destiny had its plans for each of them. It has been conspiring against them and for them at the same time. It was the destiny that had silently sowed the seed of this need in their souls. And it is the destiny itself that had also planned for a moment when they will be rewarded for all that wait, all that yearning, all that hoping and praying, by a scintillating streak of life that will entice them towards it's source. This source being the soul from which this stream of hope seems to emanate. The soul that would pass as another human being to another human being. But not to the them, who were a part of that divine conspiracy which had acted upon the two of them.

Then one day, that moment came. Their vicinity of each other had that magnetic influence on each other that they both, in a flash knew that their moment have arrived.

The Cupid had struck.

Time around again this time, to them, no amount of entertainment seems to be fulfilling enough, no cuisine seems to satisfy, no amount of success seems to be stimulating and the adventure has lost its thrill...

...unless they are together!

These two souls who perceive each other as destiny's response to their unfulfilled emptiness are now bonded together in a spiritual tie which is beyond what any law or tradition can prescribe. It is beyond what any philosopher can describe. It is only what, on the two unnamed souls, that destiny can inscribe.

The hollowness that has been haunting them, the incompleteness whose resolve they have been waiting for, has been renounced by the advent the other. They are so glad to have been united. So much so that they feel that they are re-united. That they were two wandering souls of whom half only remained and other half was that void that they were awaiting to be fulfilled. Now that they have found their better halves, they are now one soul. From the two hollow halves have born one complete soul.

The only wish now of this complete soul is to live every moment in this state of utter fulfillment where even a twinkle of an eye, a small gesture of the body, an utterance is too important to be missed.

A flaw in any half of this soul belongs, not to that half, but now, to this one soul. The other half knows this and accepts this. In this acceptance, they remove the last boundary between them. They are one. For once and all. Till death does them apart.

It is now, that they are in the Love that Love itself is.

Call me a fool...

"dedicated to the one with rose colored glasses"

Call me a fool...I won't mind!

In fact being truly human is all about being a fool. Many pragmatic thinkers would agree to that without hesitation. There is a percentage of the mob who will incessantly label an action or reaction based on an emotional call as a foolishness when they view it against the manners of material world.

As per my thoughts, it takes the skin of a Rhinoceros to take a call from the heart in your stride and just move on. I am not convinced that those hard boiled politicians and criminals don't get a call whenever they commit  something that should is not to be done as per the principles of morality and civilization. They are only pretending to ignore those calls and ultimately perish under the huge burden of trauma that they have caused.

Same goes with all among us who are owners of lesser of those Rhinocerian virtues. Some will acknowledge the call and act. Others decide to bear the burden for rest of their lives.

On affection and attachment, again, fools I appreciate. Fools that jump into trouble for other Fools who have done the same sometime in the past. A preacher of materialism would advocate to keep his skin safe on pretext of destiy and jump out of trouble while someone else faces the music.This preacher is not a Fool, so would state he by measuring the degree of lunacy on his worldly scale.

Fools we are, to cry for someone leaving us.
Fools we are, to take the blame of others.
Fools we are, to take the long route to success.
Fools we are, to let go and start over again.
Fools we are, and in this state of Lunacy, we sing, enjoy, be merry and proud!

Strokes of the cosmic artist

We all remember those early years of our lives that are cherished as the most valuable assets of the time when we are learning the skills to take the first steps into real world.

As I have already mentioned, we are born with minds as blank as a canvas. Like an expert artist, something sketches our emotions, reactions, perceptions, thoughts and point of views on this blank sheet and create, in essence, us; our selves.

For most of us, this process of carving our selves begins pretty early. Even before we realize it. When we grow able enough to recognize and pick up things and toddle around the place, when we start exploring the stuff around us, when we start recognizing the sounds and voices, when we start learning the ways of the world around us, when we start experiencing the feelings arising within us as well as the feelings we receive from our surroundings.

The first time we roll off the bed :-),
first time we relish a chocolate,
first time we come to know that an iron is hot,
first time we realize it hurts when something pricks,
first time we understand that speaking is better than crying,
first time we experience what an injection is,

many first times...

Even a young infant, unable to speak yet, is able to understand the feeling of humiliation from a group of people laughing at her funny or stupid act. Understands the warmth of a mother's lap, and knows the difference from others'. Derives pleasure from a particular song playing on the TV. Knows her favorites and so on.

The little one may not remember these virtues of herself after the transition into the conscious life few years later, but each of these incidences that have forged these virtues into her self, happen to add a small stroke on that blank canvas of an evolving self.

Strokes of some cosmic artist on the blank canvas alias human mind, drawing the outlines that will become difficult to alter later. Like the first few strokes of an artist that determine the proportions of the final sketch. No matter how hard the artist tries later, those first ones will always influence the artwork in making. Quite an analogy apart from the fact that an artist can start over!

The world around us, composed of love, affection, care, happiness, elation, fondness, motherhood, luxury, satisfaction, warmth, comfort, and so many soothing feelings also harbors the opposites to these feelings! However, nature works, not by some equations, but by the principles of randomness and permutations and combination. Each one of us experiences the same emotions and feelings but in different proportions, at different times and to different extents.

Let us talk about our little infant that knows her mother's lap from others'. One day she, curious about a colorful toy on the shelf across the bedroom, rolled off the bed to land on the floor! She got immediate attention and caressing today and her belief system was strengthened that help will be on the way when trouble strikes. The situation could have been different, she might had to endure that helplessness a wee bit longer in order to be attended, given if someone was occupied in another room, tuning her belief system into a different accent. Yet another day, she could have been laughed at on the same act!

Again, who is carving this belief system?

Our (cosmic) artist I presume. His random and fine strokes that we receive while we are in that unconscious state of making.

Like our little infant, every one experiencing their first times is subject to receive each of these experiences in varied proportions. The lucky ones receiving more of the the softer touch of the world probably turning them into optimists. And the converse truly follows.

As a result of which, and by the time we grow wise enough to be able to make distinctions between the choices that the world has to offer, many of us already have, and of course unconsciously, developed our own perception about what the world outside is like and what is worth learning and what is not.

Our inclination towards a certain set of traits begin to reflect in our personality. The first strokes of the cosmic artist are at work. The path for the rest of the portrait have been decided and some expert eye can tell what the portrait will look like when completed.

"He will be humble and caring."

"She is always silently observing people."

"He is just like his grandfather. A perfectionist."

"Had we moved to the city earlier, he would have been smoking like his peers."

"She acts more like a boy."

"I cannot relate her to anyone of his family."

"What a kid, got the best of his parents and worst of none."

Some cosmic artist, without our knowledge, permission, or affirmation, has already sketched the outlines of the portrait that we are going to represent few years down the line.

We had no control on this. We were not able to control what is allowed to come into us. We were blank as a sheet... Absolutely vulnerable to the artistic strokes. Having absolutely no control of what we are going to be, what we are being turned into, what we are being subject to and how all this is shaping our final destiny.

AND if we are happy with the person we see in the mirror every morning, then we should be grateful that we had received just the right strokes of the cosmic artist. We have been shaped to head into just the right direction. Just the right doses of all the experiences to our vulnerable self have mutated our thought process to suit something that we enjoy doing today. That we are rewarded for. To react in a certain way to certain situations that we are regarded (or hated) for. To be someone that we ARE today.

Considering my own self, I feel lucky to have been in the right place when my own Self was subject to the strokes of the cosmic artist. I Feel lucky to have received the right amount of exposure to certain aspects of life followed by just the right amount of certain other experiences, continuously for years, until I grew wise enough to direct myself in my own ways; until I was able to gain enough vision of the world outside to find my own path in this Labyrinthian world.

So, whats important here? We all grow up like this and find our ways!

Important is our selves, that we live inside today, the self we do not know what went into its creation before we were not even aware of our very existence. Something conspired every second to form the substrate, building on which, we all find our destinations, realize our ambitions, fulfill our dreams, and provide a meaning to our existence. Important is the conspiracy that went into our creation! The process that we never happen to appreciate. That we never thank God for.

Even in the presence of a mess of randomness, the process of making of our selves was being directed by that something with such a precision that has no real analogy to present.

Like a silky smooth, fair colored feather of a bird being directed to you from a thousand miles away through the winds, storms and breezes only to give you a brief special appearance on a sunny day so that you may gain appreciation of beauty of yet another kind.

Yet another stroke of the cosmic artist. :-)