There was a man, who was so filled with despondency that he decided to commit suicide. He started his long walk across the city towards the bridge, which was to be his jumping-off place. However, he promised himself that if he met one smiling, happy, friendly-looking person on the way, he would turn back from his harsh errand.

 

Oddly, the story ends without answering the question as to whether or not he could save his life. The tale however poses a question; one of those haunting personal questions; which pop into the mind now and then. If that man had met you, would he have turned back and taken up his life with a measure of courage? Well, would he? The smile, that is really genuine, is something that springs from within. It will not only enhance our appearance but will enrich our lives and also the lives of those with whom we come into contact.

 

You will never know whose life will be ignited with your smile! Or else, well........you might be creating a crack in the world out side.

I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.

~William Blake

 

Our problems with anger and our problems in relationships go hand in hand. Some of us have held back our anger, which led to resentment of our loved ones. Some of us have indulged our anger and become abusive. Some of us have been so frightened of anger that we closed off the dialogue in our relationships when angry feelings came out.

 

Sometimes we get angry, but hold it inside because we think it's wrong to feel it. If anger builds inside us, it expands like a balloon ready to burst. If not released, it can make us depressed, or even physically ill. When we give ourselves permission to feel anger, we are better able to get rid of it in a healthy way.

 

Indira Ghandi said, "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."

When we let go of our anger we can honestly embrace each other with open arms. Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.

 

How easy it is to speak without thinking and hurt other’s feeling,

especially when we are living in today’s busy, stressful world.

Anne kreer’s poem ‘hasty words’ gives us something to think about.

You have said a thoughtless word,

Although you didn’t really mean it.

What can you do to take it back,

How best can you redeem it?

Just say “I m sorry, let’s be friends”,

That’s the best way

To make amends.

 

Do you remember Arunathadi Roy? The author has these beautiful lines in her Bookers Prize winning book, God of small things, “Do you know what careless words do? They make others love you a little less.”

 

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens .

'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.'
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.'

She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'

I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'

 

 

 

“I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it”.   Harry Emerson
     

Once a hunter reared a dozen eaglets. As the chicks grew up, feathers covered the little ones and began hopping around, he cut the wings of a few of them so that they wouldn’t fly high, but would peck around clearing the ground. He caged some others that he could see them always. However, he let free a couple of them to sore high in the sky to realize their potential as he thought they were capable of that – not the others though.

 

Years passed by, the hunter grew old and he wanted to set free all his by-now-grown up eagles. To his dismay, the ones whose wings he had clipped regularly continued to hop around even when their wings had grown fully. Those in the cage never attempted to fly though they were free to. Hence, he branded them useless and never bothered to care for them thereafter.

 

Most of the time, the hidden potential in an individual dies with the person as s/he is never in the group of that privileged lot who the hunter thought could fly high. Call it pre-arranged anatomy of the universe or simply the law of nature or due to imprudence and egocentricity, branded and with a tarnished self-image we move around carrying the burden of 

The dream never dreamt,

The ambition never realized,

The goal never reached,

The song never sung.  

 

We live in a society that upholds and highlights the achievements and personality of a select few however negligent may be the contribution they make. The majority is left out in the dark to stagger and falter even if there are gems among them. Why? They are not all supposed to fly high. Does the hunted has the freedom to hunt the hunter? The line between destiny and reality is mythical, mysterious and fragile. The day we shatter the bulwarks of this vicious line we would make progress by leaps and bounds.

 

No change in monotonous imitation

No novelty in the structured pattern

No thrill on the trembled, trodden paths

No progress devoid of refusal to amend

No heights conquered without gazing high

No peace when the mind is perturbed

No love fulfilled without involving risks

No success scripted pursuing not one’s dreams

No bond of friendship lasted if selfish

No points ever proved being in the crowd

No heroes rose sans sacrifices made

No relationship blossomed when sharing lacked

 

Refusal to look outside the structured strata without being judgmental, contemptuous and presumptuous seems to be as hard as being asked to change oneself once and fore all for most of us, humans. The insatiable urge to follow the archetypical behaviour existing in the society, however grotesque or irrelevant doesn’t seem to hinder most from being repetitive and blindly imitating what’s laid down. The hippie movement hit the streets of the US in the 60s. In the 1960s the event that most dramatically divided consciences was the Vietnam War, which witnessed the killing of millions of youth in Vietnam and several thousands more in the US. Many middle-class students not only took to the streets to demonstrate against the war, but also began to question and even reject the moral principles on which they had been brought up.

 

In the universities, students rejected curricula that had served for decades and instead they demanded "relevant" courses in black or women's studies and participation in the decision-making process of the universities. the ripples gradually gathered rhythm and spread in the US and then across the West. It originated in the San Francisco Bay area in 1964. The hippies’ ideological principles were grounded on non-conformism, homelessness, oriental mysticism - especially the Zen version of Buddhism, an expansion of individual conscience by means of unrestricted alcohol and drug taking- especially LSD and hashish- colourful pacifism through the so-called flower power setting all disputes.

 

Though the movement got disintegrated and degenerated it did prove a point or two and clearly left behind a mark that was to be reminder for many.

 

well, you come across things like this from the class notes when you study for the xams!!

And the apple up there, the rosy one

The juicy, tangy, crunchy one,

That’s the one entices everyone.

Everyone wanted and keeps and eye –

A naughty eye, one must say.

 

The luscious fruit, like a young pretty lady

Makes everyone turns his head once, twice, thrice.

To have it ready and one day savor the taste

Everyone watered his mouth, even birds n squirrels.

 

And came the moment when it was ready

The object of desire

The centre of attraction

The apple of many eyes, finally broke away

In a moment of swaying in dance from the twig

But came not crashing down as expected

To fall on Newton’s head. Alas!

 

It left everyone gasping, mouth not watering

But left widening round and round, while

The apple kept floating in the air.

 

So is love. Real love breaks rules.

Shatters traditions, re-writes history.

It even defies gravity!

 

 

after a very long gap just finding his way back....maybe as DQ or Sweety said....anyhow, let s wait and watch if he s able to stroke those works again!!

how u all?

 

 

 

 

A poppy that braved it s way up

on a cold, windy morning spoke:

Hey listen, it s so amazing out here,

bright glistering rays, buzzing bees,

melting fog, colourful rainbow..

Hey wake up and rise above

the muck and muck that covers you,

 face the world that’s above you…

 

 

And spoke the skylark,

Hey listen you sleepy head, it s so breathtaking up here,

The rising sun, cool breeze that caresses you

The lush green that is spread all over

The streams running down…

 

Hey wale up from the darkness inside and put on your dreams…

 

In no mood to listen to all these lullaby

He turned on the other side and slept on

Nestling under the blanket…

 

Also dreaming of producing oil from the sun rays

Denuding the rainbow and chaining the sun,

Cropping the green and drying the stream…he dreamt on…

 

Human beings like never before are dashing ahead at an alarming speed to conquer not just whatever is on the earth, but beyond. The mad rush to match the Creation and to feel that the mankind is the best and the ultimate creation is driving them crazy. The deceptive and illusory thought that has so bonded the human mind that the earth is created for human beings give them no qualms to do whatsoever they wish…sighhhh..

 

 

 

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an ex-pression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France
(someone sent me this one)

 

 

With radio mirchi brewing by his side that with a tender touch wipes out all tension and worry and paints a smile (well, at least that’s what it tried to do drr guess..) with its melodies, it s heaven sprinkling down, but  with the loads of books that keep him pinned down, and a bottle of water, & some kind of fruits to binge on – no chips for the time being as he is still in the recovery mode –  on his study table, it would look as if his watch and time-piece are in an indefinite strike...baang bang.. 

 

And when the stuff he is reading is so incomprehensibly intriguing, xcrutiating, you get lost in it (uuff if only lost forever), oblivious of the time elapsing and the bottles being emptied…also from the branis whatever little is left....after all what relevance it is to have food or study these rubbish or even make a move, when you are elevated to a place much high – well on the chair of course – from which you get glimpse of what you otherwise see in dreams (Tare Zamin par??)!!

 

The amazing potential inherent in human imagination as a result of reading is unexplainable. While a movie – more so if it s a movie like the strangely hit Om Shanty Om – confines you to its strict frame works, a book breaks the  shackles and let you sore high to great heights – got to be a little careful if you are a dusk or sth. Such joy, such excitement, such freedom is shut close to those who are blind to the beauty of reading….

Then why on earth doesn’t he study? Screw him right away……