बाबा..! विमान..!! (Dad, look! a plane!!)

A little girl exclaimed with enthusiasm as she pointed out a tiny airplane to her dad. She was standing at the window next to my seat in the suburban train, watching the plane gliding idly across the sky. The train was moving and the plane was fast disappearing out of her view. She started struggling to catch a last glimpse of the plane thru the corner of the window. It was so silly, and funny, but the little girl was enjoying it. Inadvertently I caught myself doing the same.

Suddenly I realized it, and withdrew myself immediately, lest ‘others’ see me doing what I was doing – watching a plane in the sky. Grown-ups are not supposed to get excited by little objects in the sky. Grown-up’s are supposed to behave like grown ups and watching planes is certainly not a ‘grown-up’ thing to do. These are the rules grown-up’s make for other grown-up’s. What a pity.

I admit, I get excited looking at aircrafts, jets, and other objects flying high in the sky. In fact, I get so excited, that I trace the object until it becomes an infinitely small dot in the sky. My friends think I’m an immature kid, especially the ones who live in the vicinity of the airport.

Children are innocent little beings. They follow their instincts and listen to their heart. As we grow up, we try to do things that are socially acceptable and respectable in the scheme of things we have designed ourselves. This often means restricting ourselves from listening to what our heart says. “Dance like nobody is watching, sing like nobody is listening” is an excellent quote, but it’s easier said than done. I’m not going to preach any more philosophy, but arrive straight to the resolution – Don’t suppress your heart’s voice.

Why should I deny myself the pleasure of doing what I really like? Who really cares about it? The next time I see a plane through the window of my train, I am going to enjoy watching it. I’m going to let my heart act unrestrained.

• You made my day (16)
• The unalterable soul (4)
• The perfume seller (8)
• The Blue Chatur (42)
• The Bagel Story (14)

What may seem to be a tiny droplet of rain to you and me could in fact be a giant lake for an ant. Incriminating!, may some declare if they see you wearing ‘short’ skirts. Perhaps the world will perpetually argue the case of a terrorist and a freedom fighter.

Most of our judgments are based on relative definitions. In the absence of measured characterization, one seems to compare behaviors based on the examples of self proclaiming liberalists, the reddest of the communists or the most ruthless authoritarian laws. The understanding of the extent of goodness or badness of any event therefore is subject to limitless deviation. Of course, when I say ‘deviation’, again I am expecting something different from what I believe is right.

So pardon me (at the risk of sounding like a saint) when I say that most of us humans are trapped inside the barriers that we created around ourselves. Should we allow these confined souls sufficient space to wander wildly before arriving at a verdict?

At the same time, isn’t it true that this is what makes us unique individuals?

• The unalterable soul (4)
• Act unrestrained (5)

Blishh..

Caught between a sequence of events that seem hell bent upon culminating into the biggest ethical dilemma faced in my 24 year young life, I pray to my buddy, (known to others as ‘God’), “Oh Lord!, please pull me out of this, and I swear I’ll never ever wander close to it” (In fact I pledge to stay astronomical distances away). “Ah, double standards”, yells my mind back as I sway into the conventional mindset - remembering the Almighty when required and then being content keeping him away in his physical medium on grandma’s prayer desk when the work is done. How mean! Yea I know!.

Few lines I read from a website come to the rescue:

… the eternal and unchangeable soul which is inherently free from delusion, ignorance, impotence and sorrow. So explains the preceptor: “Control yourself - your thoughts, speech and body - and you shall effectively control the world. Drop the mental baggage you have been carrying around; drop the external self-identifications, attachments and desires; stop adding to your perception of the adversity in this world! Nothing can harm you, the eternal soul. Nothing outside of you, the soul, gives you happiness or takes it away. All joy and sorrow comes from you, from your deluded perceptions and worldly expectations, and not from that which is not you.”

…und so weiter (why do I even bother to read this crap stuff?).

Yah, if only that was a little easier to do, I’d be sporting a warm yellow halo behind my head like the Gods and wise men depicted in the mythological shows on TV.

For the past two weeks I’m either sitting with Aakruti (name of my computer) typing away those goddamn b-school essays in double spaced twelve point times font face while listening to my play list priy.sha.vad.one (arranged as: Priyank > Hindustani Shastriya > Vaadya Sangeet > Play list 1) or talking on the phone with B or R. Mom is frustrated worrying about two things (well three actually), one - my headphones blasting away my eardrums and two – excessive electromagnetic (or whatever) waves entering my feeble brain from my cell phone. (I suspect she is also suspicious about something )

I know, I need to go out into the open for more than just plucking flowers for Grandma’s morning puja.

Aargh…! Screw it. I feel like going to the moon with my laptop. Going away (don’t you dare say ‘escaping’) from this physical world to seek solace (?) in the unfathomable depths of the unexplored universe. Armed with a ‘Do not disturb’ sign.

• The milky way (9)
• The Blue Chatur (42)
• Sixty hours (0)
• Setting new highs (1)
• Purple ink, smudged finger and EVM (0)