Every Crest Has A Trough

Every crest has a trough
Every high a low
Every rise a fall
Life does ebb and flow
So is the rule of life

A straight line, sans the highs and lows
Wouldn’t life be a boring ride
Aren’t we better, with twists and turns that life begets

Does one not need to experience darkness to appreciate light
Does not the vanquished understand victory better than the victor
Does failure not teach more than success

Life seen through a looking-glass is a full of warts and all
Every trouble a magnified
Fly up, look down from a thirty thousand feet above
If you have reasons to smile, what more could you ask of

As for me, it is a smile that spans from ear to ear
More blessings to count than curses to mourn

Every Crest Has A Trough

Every crest has a trough
Every high a low
Every rise a fall
Life does ebb and flow
So is the rule of life

A straight line, sans the highs and lows
Wouldn’t life be a boring ride
Aren’t we better,  with twists and turns that life begets

Does one not need to experience darkness to appreciate light
Does not the vanquished understand victory better than the victor
Does failure not teach more than success

Life seen through a looking-glass is a full of warts and all
Every trouble a magnified
Fly up, look down from a thirty thousand feet above
If you have reasons to smile, what more could you ask of

As for me, it is a smile that spans from ear to ear
More blessings to count than curses to mourn

A Year Gone By

A year gone by many a times is that mile stone that provides some of us the needed excuse to look back, asses the happening and at times allows us to wonder how much did we travel if at all we did….

Changing Heroes

As we grow, our heroes change, the reasoning transform, the passion involved mellows.. Our experiences, intellect , rationale, egos, growing cynicism all of these play a role to the transformation.

Vinoo Mankad

As a child most of us start of with our Dad being the hero (more often than not the mother grows in stature at a later stage in life..). Starts with Dad and then goes on to looking up to personalities he thinks of as his heroes (Which in all probability would be one generation further  up). A few years down add a few uncle’s or aunt’s who start becoming the be all and end all..As we begin to grow out of the ‘My Daddy Strongest’ phase we start to find our feet along with siblings,peers, friends.. as the years run along one starts to see the need to differentiate with one’s parent and maybe an elder sibling if one exists… this attempt at being different from the older is plausibly a way of telling that ‘I have a mind of my own’ may be not too much thought goes in, just the need to be different

One Plus of reading online

One big plus I find of reading online, be it news or blogs or whatever else, is the easy access to the dictionary. Over the years have stumbled on words and at times have continued to stumble upon the same words, without knowing their exact meanings, most times the context of the line or the piece allows us to comprehend and hence we move on. The sheer effort of having to reach out for the dictionary, the need to leave a cozy chair or bed or where ever one is, many a time is more than enough to put it away for latter. A ‘later’ which rarely comes. The lethargy, inertia,potential of loosing continuity in our reading, does us in….

When reading online all it takes is opening a new tab with the dictionary on it (Which now for me is a habit http://dictionary.reference.com/ is perpetually open in one tab). The advantages are many, more so for some one as lazy and unorganized as me. One does not have to go hunting for the dictionary, that done one would have to flip through pages and search the word out. If all that was not enough, if the word being hunted down is a slang or a relatively newer word which does not find a place in that edition, the hunt ends futile. Further, for some one like me whose understanding of phonetics would make a ten-year old jump with joy and a sense of superiority….. An online dictionary is a sure blessing, where one could choose to listen to the word being called out. Not only does one get the meaning but also the correct pronunciation  of the word.

I for one, sure prefer cut & paste (ctrl c , ctrl v) to flipping through pages… Call me lazy!!!All this pretty much in real-time, without having to move one’s derriere or hinder one’s reading by much…

Driving – The Western Ghats in Monsoon

Few months back with the Monsoon setting in over the western ghats, had the opportunity to drive through the monsoon rains…Words could hardly describe the beauty or the serenity or the happiness experienced. Taking to the roads has been a joy to me for some time now, in the last few years have found greater joy driving in the rain. Have always loved the rain, but until recently (a couple of years or little more maybe) never cherished the thought of driving in the rain..Gladly no more the case.
Rains in the Ghats give the green an ethereal beauty. The clean air, the smell of rain, low hanging clouds…when the line differentiating cloud and mist is very thin.There are few joys that match up to being on the roads with friends. Lucky am I to have folks who enjoy a drive with no fixed plans or timeline. Step out enjoy the rain, feel the wet earth beneath ones bare feet.. feel the drops of water trickle down ones face.. none of this, is any less then bliss, add to that a some brilliant songs managing to play itself at the right times.It is something indeed.

Funnily extreme joys has an uncanny way of being followed by a melancholic state bordering at sadness. Was told an interesting theory behind that, goes something like this – When the mind is over joyed and happy with nature, the mind relaxes and gets languid and at this time some of the not so happy moments which we have brushed under the carpet and bottled away just find a way of slipping out and more often than not one is not able to articulate why and what that emotion is about. Not sure if that is the case. On more then one occasion, driving through the wet, misty ghats with its foliage and canopied roads – when I believed, I had never before experienced that kind of beauty, peace and joy I found the melancholic cloud descend on me with out any  cause or calling.. wonder why and how?? Is it that one is not entitled to experience such beauty with out allowing a realization to hit – of where we are in our daily life, crowding ourselves with mundane at time meaningless tasks and activities to fill our hollow existence. Is it the hollowness?? or a glimpse of what life ought to be?? Aspirations?? All viewed through a set of parameters so different from the ones we use in our daily lives.Is it just the case of “The other side of the fence being greener” ? Is the mind being enamored by change? More often then not the road not taken is full of joy and we refuse to see the perils and challenges generously sprinkled (the likelihood of it being very high) as on any other road. Not sure what it  is….

One looks at this beauty and the effect it has and wonders, how a few generations back folks lived amidst these environs and possibly lived a fuller life.(not to mean that they did not have hardships). Amazed how a couple of hours and a few hundred kilometers away from our lives (Bangalore in this case) we are transported to another world.

More pictures from the drives
PS: Afterthought – this never seems to happen driving through bright sunny terrains or for that on a star/moon lit night. Wonder if it is too do with the quality of light (seems to happen with wast wilderness at dusk too)

why does it feel like an end??

Why does it feel like an end? and a lousy one that… more often then not, i don’t find my intuition wrong, if there has been a moment that I wished it to be, this surely is one…

For very many reasons, some of which I would call stupid, I find myself in a time and space where I sense a phase coming to an end. For many reasons it is a phase I should be glad is over, as greedy as I am , I want the best of both worlds, best of the phase gone by and the new world. Honestly it is a situation where both could easily co-exist. As in one moves with the best of earlier and walks into the new to explore and find , but cushioned by the comfort of  ‘knowns’ and more so known angels. Guess certain things however simple, is some times too good to be true.

Just as with life, one is for ever conscious that all things have to end or at the least move on… so should an end be such a cause of pain and stress. Just as in life and death, a painless death at the end of a life well lived and the basic responsibilities to the filial completed, is more to be celebrated rather then mourned. Just the same with the end of a phase within a life time. As conscious as we are of the inevitable end, the mind does not accept a rude or painful end to an awesome phase.

How much do we control this whole process? “Could we have done something differently?” will for ever remain a question with a million answers. Why could not a few things have been different, differently sequenced, could a few not have made more sensible choices… again a bunch of zillion angst, god only knows directed at whom??? One is left with the thought(to whom ever, oneself or the powers that be) “Give me the strength to accept what i can not change, the courage to change what i can and the wisdom to know the difference” the strength and courage are doable, the wisdom to know the difference – that surely comes by hard…

Old wisdom forever tells us to live n the present…. again ever so simple, was it ever easy?? why are so many simple things never easy??

After all of it, one is still hoping, is it an end at all, or just a short rest to regather and go on to better times – as it ought to have been…..

Let the bird fly……

Let the bird fly, if it comes back it is yours,if it doesn’t, it never ever was yours… as simple as it may sound, have seen very few people who have been able to put the concept in practice. More often then not, most of us hold onto people ever so tight, for the fear of loosing them. In the process doing them more harm by crowding them, hurting them and not letting them explore and find themselves. All this in the name of the immense love we have for them.

Remember once reading a definition to selfishness which has stuck to me since, it goes something like this “Selfishness is not to do what you want to do, but to want others to do, what you want them to do” to me ones love for some one would be in similar lines. To love some one, will not be to lead their lives for them, rather would be in supporting them in leading their lives the way they aspire to live it.

How many times have we heard our self say (more so in a romantic relationship, guess we do it in all relationships, but the shrillness of the emotion is so toned down that we don’t always pick it up for it is) I want him/her, I want it to work out between us, My happiness revolves over this relationship working well, I want to marry him/her and different variations of the same rant. More often than not these aspirations revolve around what we see as, bringing our sleves happiness.

How many times have we lost sleep hearing voices in our head saying, I want this working out, giving us both happiness, Wish he/she will find happiness with me, Hope I am able to let the person be, hope we are able to grow up together, that he/she finds her dreams and becomes the person he/she so wishes to be, Hope he/she is able to fulfill her aspirations.. My guess is before we have  half finished the spectrum of possibilities in that line of thinking we would find ourselves deep in sleep land…

Why when in love we seem to think one dimensional in terms of what we want, rather then what would my partner want… trust me, there would be many a lifetimes lived with spouses or partners not being vaguely aware of the answer to the question…..

We crowd each other so much that there comes a time when marriages / committed relationships for many start to seem a curse instead of a blessing. We concoct rules to the effect that a partner in a relationship could not do stuff by themselves without the other being present, or they have given up the right to forge friendships and explore life by themselves or with a bunch of similar thinking people.. and if one did do so, it  is seen a crime if not more. Being together does not mean becoming one (reminded of a quote “marriage makes two one, question is which one?), it is about enriching each other, being there for the other, to be the strength that helps your special one live his/her life better.. letting go of them and letting them be…

Is there then a risk of loosing that one person you love so much, would he or she in the process of finding him/her self out grow you, find their inner self that you become redundant and loose that special place in their life. Even worse would he/she find some one else who he/she thinks is special and would rather move on… Possibly yes, we do run the risk of loosing that person in that context, but did you ever own him/her? Do we ever own anyone?

wouldn’t you rather have a bright lively person evolve and move on from your life to find greater happiness whether it be through another person or through the self then see the person morbid, shackled and caged by your love??
The answer to me is simple (let the person be, let them blossom…). I said simple not easy..(easier than tying people down though) – Life is Simple, not always easy

Ps: I think of people who can let go, let be, and be there for you come what ever, as strong – And ain’t I lucky to be blessed (on this count as in many others)  with strong people in my life, not just a partner, but pretty much most of my inner circle. For all I have said I need to learn better the art of letting people be