DIRECTION

The word “DIRECTION” means 1. A corner in which one heads. 2. Instruction(s) to reach an intended goal.

While driving on the road we follow any one of the  four (forward, reverse, left or right), while at the sea a ship follows one of the 4 (North, West, East & South) or more specifically any of N, NNE, NE, NEE, E, SEE, SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, SWW, W, NWW, NW, NNW. When airborne the plane has two more direction added to this 16 directions namely up and down. All these direction are relevant while one is on the earth or in the earth’s atmosphere. Once you leave the earth these directions render useless for one need to substitute the sun with, may be another distant star.

In the process of marching toward the destination a car is given direction by the wheels, a ship is given direction by the rudder; a plane is given direction by the air foils plus rudder and a spacecraft by the nozzle.

Proper direction is very vital to reach the desired destination to progress and to survive.

Once on a beach, one wave after the other, brought sholes of star fishes, the fishes were destined to die but a small boy on the beach was trying to catch one and throw it back in to the sea. The waves were mightier than the hand of the boy. The waves brought the fishes in thousands and boy returned them back in one or two. There were others on the beach but he was the only person returning fishes back to the waters.

An old man walked up to him and asked what difference does it make? The fishes come in majuscule and you send them in miniscule. The boy lifted a fish and saying “It makes difference to this one” he threw it into the water. He took another one said the same thing and threw it into the water.

For the old man it was just a futile exercise but for the fish it was a matter of life and death. The boy gave a direction to the fish, a direction towards water, a direction towards life.

While on road we come across crossroad and living a life we come across ambiguity. We cannot continue to stay there for long, we have to take a decision, a direction and move on. When ambiguity pervades, haziness is all around, a remark from a friendly soul falls on our ears. “Why don’t you do this?”, “Have you ever tried this one?”, “How about doing it this way?”, “Never say no.”, “You are capable of doing that.” “You should give it a try” so on and so forth.

I call these remarks as “PASSING REMARKS”. How careful are we? How attentive are we to these remarks? They often go unheard. Is it because they sound unpleasant? Can they be turned into melodious music? Can they be transformed in to a symphony?      

There is no dearth of stories of great men who understood the importance of these passing remarks and made the most out of their lives. These remarks work equally well for those who are careful listener and consistent follower. 

One such passing remark from Neha opened up a new direction for me that I never dreamed of even in my wildest dream. It is said that "The journey of thousand miles begins with a single step" and fortunately enough, I ..... took that single step. 

See you next time with the STORY OF NEHA PATEL

LOVE WITHIN AND WITHOUT

Je t’aime (I love you) is an expression used across all existing relations in the world. Sometimes it forms the base of forming new relations. This is an expression used to express the intensity of connection between people. It is glue that binds people together.

God made air and god made love. He blended them well and left them to flow. Poets say “Love is in the air”. How true would it be? No sooner this question rises in the mind the answer too comes readily. How come we feel connected with someone, when the sky covers up with clouds which drizzle in harmony with the swaying breeze? It is love in the pollen that rides the swirls of the wind to reach its destination. The beautiful flower that I am connected to at this moment is the outcome of one such act.  

As I write this blog, the curtain on the window, flutters in tune with the breeze, each flutter impregnates the ambiance in the room with light fragrance of a flower just outside the window. The ebb and tide of fragrance, renders me restless, provokes me to have more. The empty flower vase lying in front of my eyes and provocation whispering in my ears “Go and get it, are working hand in glove”. The mind is agitated and fingers on the verge of reaching out to pluck it. My heart cries out “Do you love it? If yes, don’t do it.”

Love that reaches out is blissful and when responded, a symphony is struck. The flower is trying to reach out to me through its fragrance and was I responding to it or about to shatter it.

We fall prey to emotive forces. Emotion blinds us and drives us possessive. To us, flower in not a creation but merely an object to be used and thrown away. It seems this perception has extended to contemporary society too.

Money power, muscle power, authority, position is shattering (Rape, Gang rape, molestation, eve teasing, child abuse) the fair sex everywhere. Can police, can strict laws, can jail, can hanging solve this problem? Every time I switch on the news channel, the news reporter has at least one such news. Shattering happens unabated.

On Sept 16, 2013 when the supreme court of India announced it verdict in the Delhi rape case, hell broke loose on the four convicts. They chose to kill and walked the way to get killed.

At times I think, is the social fiber strengthening or weakening. The society has run dry of love, honor and respect for the fair sex. Can’t it be restored? Can’t awareness be created? Can’t it be revived?

I am hopeful; it can come back the way it has disappeared. We have in us immense capacity to love, honor and respect the fair sex, a unique creation of Almighty.

Love is to be, and feel the bliss that generates within and extends without. Love is to be, and feel the bliss that generates outside and extends within.

HAVING AN AFFAIR

One leads the other follows, one calls the other listens, one attracts and the other gets attracted, one allures the other gets allured. Closeness begets a bonding, closeness begets a relationship that goes on and on for the whole life.

It is a call from within, making distances disappear and closeness creep in. With the heat of closeness comes forgetfulness and legalization of this closeness gets forgotten. People say “He as an affair”, “She has an affair”. Affairs are always alluring and particular in its infancy. These alluring affairs are excellent stuff for cooking up gossip stories. If the affair continues and lasts long people say it as “live in relationship”, a term widely used now a day.

Affair! When they happen, how they happen, and why they happen nobody knows.They are unpredictable. I too fell prey to it. It happened very early in life. Once in love, always in love. Particularly the first love is easy to digest but hard to forget. In life we come across people, I came across a lady and got married to her legally. That old affair still continues, it does not complain about me getting married. It continues to be calm and patient; it demands nothing but donates a lot. It gives me pleasure that could be felt by nobody else but me. The only thing I need to do it is give it some time. Life continues to be a joyful, blissful, wonderful and a graceful experience. Two decades later, I had a third affair. This one has a different name but has the same nature as my first affair. Let me tell you I didn’t forget to legalize it.

Many people are prone to infection. They easily get infected. I started doubting myself to be prone to infection. Not prone to viral infection but prone to affair infection. One cannot control virus and even more difficult is to control getting infected by an affair. Better for me is to give up, I have decided not to resist but to succumb and live blissfully forever. I would not be surprised if another affair is waiting to infect me.

I am really thankful to my wife for she never bothers about affairs in my life, since they keep me busy and don’t give me a chance to bother her.

Of the 3 ladies in my life one occupies physical space while the other two occupy mental space.

These fertile ladies have produced babies.

The second lady has given me a boy (Vinayak) and a girl (Bhumika)

The first lady (English Language) and the third lady (French Language) have helped me produce boys(articles) and girls(poems)

After getting retired I intend to get a graduation in English literature and legalize my life long affair with English lady (English language). Till then none of us are in a hurry.

REACHING THE DESTINATION

I was watching a 100 meter race. In the pursuit of reaching the finishing mark first; a participant unknowingly crossed into the adjacent participant’s lane and got disqualified. Hours of personal efforts undergone on daily basis, along with equal involvement of the coach; well wishes of fans, friends and kith and kin did not work. What went wrong? What did the participant miss to do? What did he miss to focus on?

Having watched the competition it was time for me to start for my home. It was going to be at least one hour drive. A drive through the lush green hilly terrain, the vegetation, the flora and fauna made the environment cool and pleasant. The road around the mountain appeared like a snake retreating in the forest. Often I would come across small water stream on the road formed by water sprinkled by the water fall near the road. At times baboons crossing the road would catch one’s sight and the musical twit of different birds on tree branches would attract one’s ears. Though being born and brought up in this place, being a part and parcel of this surrounding today for the time being, nothing did relate with me. I had reached home safely.

After the dinner everybody in the family had retired to their bedroom. My wife an excellent homemaker, after a toll taking day was far away in the deep realms of sound sleep. As far as my vision could go through the glass walls of my drawing room, the earth’s ceiling was creatively decorated with a infinite, inverted, dark saucer fitted with numerous light emitting dots spread over dark ether of space. As it happened during the drive, this too was not relating to me. I was busy occupied with mental analysis of the race that I saw in the morning.

Two things in my opinion contribute to be successful in a race; action at its best and awareness all the time. Motion demand monitoring and monitoring asks for awareness. Running a race, driving a car or living a life; they all, need to meet these two criteria.

Human needs are two; comfort and peace. Comfort concerns body and peace concerns mind. Running the race of life at time, we run after money and forget peace. Money can only bring comfort. With money one can buy furniture, a car, a house, a mobile and so on. They are all means to physical comfort. On the other hand running only after peace is also not fully rewarding. Comfort cannot replace peace and peace cannot replace comfort.

The race of life doesn't have a stopover but has different onus on every leg. Heading towards the finishing leg of life, one needs to balance and achieve both the things in proper proportion to win the race of life, to reach the destination. A home for everyone and everyone in a home.

A TRIBUTE TO LADIES, AN APPEAL TO MEN

I love watching Nat. Geo. Wild; once while watching it I happened to come across life style of Lions. The screen showed a big family of Lions, Lioness and cubs. It seemed they had relaxed, enjoyed the shade of the tree and the breeze of the season. Life is not only about living in the present but also about planning for the near future and the near future was about feeding the whole family. It was meal time.

The three Lionesses took the lead. The considerations those demanded attention were; they should look for a big kill (to feed the whole family), isolating the big animal from its big and defensive herd and finally overpower it, would it be easy? The only way left was to stop thinking and start acting.

It took careful consideration spotting a prey but it was not alone. Isolating it happened only after difficult maneuvering, often interrupted by sporadic fight back from the herd. The final phase was yet to be accomplished; driving the claws and the flesh-tearing teeth deep down in to the body of the buffalo till it gives up. It took few minutes for the task. The buffalo lay dead, the whole family started enjoying the meal while the three Lioness stayed back. They joined when most of them had finished.

In the human society too since the art of agriculture came into existence women have taken the lead and contributed a lot. Go to the rural areas you will still find queue of women return home after a full day work in the fields. It is not only about the rural front; look wherever you can lay your eyes on,  home front, education front, office front, war front, political front and even space front, are they not contributing working shoulder to shoulder with men?

Few minutes before writing this blog I was scrolling down my facebook account, when I came across a post carrying a remark on a beautiful teacher. The remark read “When such beautiful teacher is around the chance of clearing the exams are a round (zero)” There were 29 likes and a comment read “May be my ATKT could be due to this reason” Appreciating someone’s beauty is one thing and blaming someone’s beauty is another. I think somewhere we went wrong in up-keeping and guarding values.

Think our family to be a cart having two wheels and the passengers to be the kids. Imagine one wheel to be the father and the other to be the mother. What if the father doesn't move in harmony with the mother’s motion? The journey doesn't stop, it is not destined to stop, continue it will but teaching bitter lessons and disrespectful attitude which reflects when the children reach adulthood flexing their muscles and exhibiting their strength.

Dec 16, 2012 a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was beaten and gang raped in a bus by six persons, passed away 13 days later. That day onward every day, news paper and news channels carry unabated reports of rape incidents. I feel sick when I think where is the society, the legislature, the judiciary and the administrations heading for. Are they lost???

Surgeons say, we can stitch torn vaginas but we cannot stitch torn minds. Judges do admit: Justice delayed is justice denied.  Let us address this cause and create an atmosphere of trust and respect. We the men owe it to the Ladies.

If she wouldn't have wished we wouldn't have existed.

LOVE FAR AND NEAR

A clock is a device to mark the commencement and accomplishment of an event. Man made a clock and then progressed to make different version of it; the analog clock the digital clock, quartz clock and atomic clocks etc. God too has made the celestial clock and the biological clock.

The biological clock marks the commencement of different phases in a person’s life. It sets the secretion of body hormones which in turns reflects the change in body appearance, body language and the thought process. There is a change throughout, the body chemistry changes and together with the body chemistry changes the thought chemistry. The world of fantasy soars exponentially and a person sinks deeply in love. The sedimentation of love thoughts consolidates his perception of love.

In my previous office my junior was a young girl in her twenties. She was an open-minded girl. Once during the tea break she opened the topic of love. Being young she was more inclined towards demanding love, commanding love, possessive love. Possessive love is that which expects possession. A line is drawn around me and mine. Often one misses to look beyond the line. Similar school of thought is seen at many place in offices, in families, in societies, in communities, in institution and on the roads.

People settle for small gains and let lose big gains. It also happens when we pray God. We ask for petty things such as getting our children married, getting our children clear the exams, getting job for our children and so on and so forth. In this process we forget to ask wisdom. Earthly things are temporary things. They come, they go. But wisdom stays forever, wisdom can generate earthly things, wisdom can create wealth, wisdom can build healthy relation, wisdom can work wonders.

I remember a story. It were the days of turmoil, the days of civil war. Where in  a youngster whose marriage was fixed, fights with his community to save a young girl belonging to another country and another culture. He had to go through few near death situations. In the end he is able to hands over that girl to her parents and returns back.

Time rolls on weeks after weeks, months after months, years after years and decades after decades. On one end, the youngster had passed away but that girl was still alive. That girl in her old age could not resist, the thought of visiting the youngster who saved her life. “She comes to his village and finds that he has passed away. She meets his wife who welcomes her gracefully. She is told he was a beautiful person and a dutiful husband. He had also talked about her and the way he managed to take her to her parents. She had no words to express but something great to feel. A priceless treasure which nobody can rob. It was all hers. 

Many a times we come across such persons who keep us going even in their absence, their stories and their actions are strong enough to provide us the inspiration, motivation and morals strength to keep us going. Love happens while seeing someone, love happens while listening to someone and love happens while thinking of someone; thereafter, it continues and lingers on, even in his or her absence.

EMERGENCE

Flying above the clouds one can’t feel the vibrant world below. Looking at the lush green forest one can’t see the creatures dwelling in it. Sitting on the shores one can’t visualize the beauty of the aquatic world. Many things in life and nature keep on happening incessantly and go unnoticed.

Below the clouds winds blow, oceans reverberate, traffic commute, chimneys spew, hearts beat, life emerges and death engulfs. All of them happen in their own specific way.

Does the aquatic world have any concern with the terrestrial world? Does the aquatic world and terrestrial world together have any concern with the celestial world? Does the whale moving in the freezing water have any idea of the elephant roaming in the jungle? Do the both need to bother for each other? Their worlds are distances apart. May be, no creature may have concern with a world other than his own but one creature does have a concern with all three worlds and that creature is “MAN”

All creatures are driven by four basic factors of life. Food, Fear, Sleep and Sex.

Food provides energy, sleep helps refresh, fear provides safety and sex helps procreate. All creatures observe and act but man is different. He observes, interprets and acts. He builds models, he writes hypothesis and re-observes. Countless observations of the living and non-living, numerous theories of phenomenon, events and behavior of nature has given him control over many things but his quest for knowledge remains unabated. One can see him doing a space-walk, fathoming the darkest depth of the Pacific, reaching the frost biting peak of the Everest and exploring the primitive habitats’ of the Amazons.

Learning is inseparable in a man life. It may be formal or informal. While at school my Sanskrit teacher would make us recite Subhasitanis. They are verses of wisdom passed on from generation to generation. One such verse was

परोपकाराय फलंति वृक्षः परोपकाराय वहन्ती नद्यः

परोपकाराय दुहँती गाव्ह, परोपकरार्थमिदं शरीरम्           

To serve, the trees bear fruits; to serve, flows the river.                               To serve, the cows give milk; to serve, I should serve.

As a child while reciting this verse little did I feel the significance but now when I have grown up I understand the spirit behind these words. The central theme of this verse is serving, serving in whatever way one can. It can even be “Knowledge Sharing”

One can thing of Emergence as a volcanic crater that erupts lava filled with heat, light and fertility or else one can even think of it as a crack in the glacial ice sheet giving way to the elixir of life, nourishing soil, sapling, herds and human dwellings all along its path. 

I hope this blog “Emergence” serves its purpose of Knowledge Sharing