There are times in life when one finds oneself engulfed in a mirage of emotions and nostalgia. There are times when we sail like a boat without a sail in the sea of memories flooded by faces, incidents and places which were once abode of that supreme inner bliss. It is at these times that we feel what a carnal mistake we made in the process of running through life. Life is often compared with running water and we emulate it, but water for all of its outer restlessness has a calm tranquility deep inside providing a heavenly abode to many. It is then we realize that we should have run through life such that we could run through it again. Time is like sand which keeps slipping out of hand. We can’t hold it back, but we can feel its touch when still in hand and treasure this feeling in the cupboard of life, and open it when we need something warm or refreshing. But do we really do it?? Maybe not! We are too focused in life, but the irony is that in this process we loose focus of life itself. Along the way we make a plethora of relations which fade away like the rainbow. It’s necessary to realize that we may part but relations don’t…the rainbow may fade away but the colors still remain; waiting to reunite and rekindle. They only need warmth of memories and drops of emotions.
Alas!! Time flies and so does life and if we ever realize this we find ourselves in a world without the rainbow….. a rainbow of love and nostalgia…..i guess that life finally does goes on…for all the calm deep inside water we will keep sailing on top of it, searching for what is right beneath us. So very rightly said…."The treasures of the world are for those who are ready to take the plunge"
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Barbed at the Barber
Can't died in the battle of Try...this is what i wanted to be written on my epitaph.....not knowing that it was about to be rewritten.
"Haircut"...has been a domain as mercurial for me as...The Holy Grail. As i walk down my memory lane I am haunted by all those encounters with all those barbers that have left me with a foggy pulchritude of what i should have been.
And so when i saw the careen trailer of the upcoming flick "Omkara"...i was blown over by the hair style of Mr. Saif Ali Khan. I decided to shed my suave pretence for a more plebeian one...and made my way to the most famous (alas!!) barber in the vicinity.
The ambiance of the shop scattered with a plethora of hair scrapping equipment inspired geniality. I recalled all my experience from my previous encounters and sat down determined to make history. The cool ac was well complimented with Channel V flicks on the idiot box. As i took my position on what i call the "shaving chair"...things started to go wrong....but my oblivion to them was my, to be written, debacle. The idiot box changed mood, to show.....a great movie...by none other than apna Mithun Da....kya saala apun bole to...
But i was determined, and on being interrogated on the type of haircut i wanted...i replied tersely and cautiously, "Short please!!”
The young barber seemed to be a starting entrepreneur and i sought of liked his corporeal approach. He eased me into the chair like a Pied Piper. So i just stared into the idiot box trying to figure out all the Matrix Remade. It was at this time that the wheel turned around. The Matrix started downloading me and i soon found myself falling into the valley of slumber and...dearth of defeat. Mithun was enticing me into lechery....what happened next i don't remember...but what i do remember is what i want to forget! I was shoved awake by the barber magnate with an impeccable smile of a victorious artist.”Sahaab ho gaya!!"....and believe me.....everything had happened....The battle of Try was lost.....and the grand winner was the ugly and proletarian person staring at me through the mirror...who...i ghastly realized was my own ghost!!
I had been thrown from pedigree of a Casanova to that of a pitiable bard....my hair were right out from the book of the porcupine hairstyle. Finally my heroics had been cut out and shaved by a Mighty Barber and Can’t didn’t die in the Battle of Try!!
"Haircut"...has been a domain as mercurial for me as...The Holy Grail. As i walk down my memory lane I am haunted by all those encounters with all those barbers that have left me with a foggy pulchritude of what i should have been.
And so when i saw the careen trailer of the upcoming flick "Omkara"...i was blown over by the hair style of Mr. Saif Ali Khan. I decided to shed my suave pretence for a more plebeian one...and made my way to the most famous (alas!!) barber in the vicinity.
The ambiance of the shop scattered with a plethora of hair scrapping equipment inspired geniality. I recalled all my experience from my previous encounters and sat down determined to make history. The cool ac was well complimented with Channel V flicks on the idiot box. As i took my position on what i call the "shaving chair"...things started to go wrong....but my oblivion to them was my, to be written, debacle. The idiot box changed mood, to show.....a great movie...by none other than apna Mithun Da....kya saala apun bole to...
But i was determined, and on being interrogated on the type of haircut i wanted...i replied tersely and cautiously, "Short please!!”
The young barber seemed to be a starting entrepreneur and i sought of liked his corporeal approach. He eased me into the chair like a Pied Piper. So i just stared into the idiot box trying to figure out all the Matrix Remade. It was at this time that the wheel turned around. The Matrix started downloading me and i soon found myself falling into the valley of slumber and...dearth of defeat. Mithun was enticing me into lechery....what happened next i don't remember...but what i do remember is what i want to forget! I was shoved awake by the barber magnate with an impeccable smile of a victorious artist.”Sahaab ho gaya!!"....and believe me.....everything had happened....The battle of Try was lost.....and the grand winner was the ugly and proletarian person staring at me through the mirror...who...i ghastly realized was my own ghost!!
I had been thrown from pedigree of a Casanova to that of a pitiable bard....my hair were right out from the book of the porcupine hairstyle. Finally my heroics had been cut out and shaved by a Mighty Barber and Can’t didn’t die in the Battle of Try!!
The greatest Truths of life are the simplest!!
The greatest truths of life are the simplest and often practiced by the simplest of people. I get up daily with the realization that our world is slowly giving in to the termite of corruption, gnawing it’s way through the very core of our society. And as I traverse through the day I go to bed with my realization substantiated.
The newspaper, the idiot box, the radio, the ‘rickshaw walla’ and the discussion with my colleagues…..all hover around the menace kid……”CORRUPTION”…so much so that its reminds me of “DENNIS(CORRUPTION) THE MENACE”.
The issue has long been the precursor of many a debates and discussions…..but the question still remains what is HONESTY, the answer to corruption? Every one has his/her own views……scholars, preachers, saints and religion provide enough material on the topic to make a reading of a life time. And most of us in fact read it too but still find it difficult to emulate and inculcate.
One fine morning I again woke up with the same cloudy state of mind, little knowing that as the day would fall the clouds would wither away……I was about to learn the greatest lessons of life and that too from a very unusual teacher.
Being Tuesday, I decided to pay a visit a hanumaan temple, a schedule I used to follow rigorously. The temple was the usual sight…..people queuing up for an appointment with the almighty. Everyone trying to please him with plethora of things so that their long list of demands may be fulfilled and so was i.
Then there were those who were there to have their share…..the mighty beggars (everyone knows God’s not going to have all that ‘prasad’!), most of whom were small kids (oh poor kids!!).
So as per my ritual, after offering my prayers to the lord, I decide to do some charity. I got out and started distributing the ‘prasad’ among the brigade of young children outside.
The first one was a small girl (hardly 7 to 8 years old). I somehow remembered her, as she had this proud and contended look on her face. After meticulously going through the line, trying to hold the principles of equality by distributing equal amount of ‘prasad’ to everyone, I realized that I had been too meager.
I was still left with some ‘prasad’. Getting a bit late for my further schedule, I just decided to give it to the nearest beggar. I took the ‘prasad’ in my hand and extended it, not realizing what I was going to get in return.
Nobody took that Prasad, instead I heard a sweet voice saying, “I have already got my share of it, kindly give it to the boy sitting in that corner, you missed him”.
I was shocked!! I looked to see who it was. It was the same beggar girl smiling at me.
In that one sentence she explained to me what so many years, so many people and so many books had not been able to do. This was honesty exemplified!!
The world seemed to go round in my head. I was speechless. Here was a beggar with a heart bigger than a king. My mind was racing down the memory lane as scene after scene; I remembered how I had, trying to be a king, landed up being a beggar. All those times when I pushed my way ahead to get into a train, a school, a college, a job.
I remembered all those times when I had got more than what I deserved and hid it taking it as a privilege. But this moment of truth changed it all.
Life has it’s own ways of teaching us lessons. All my life I had despised the beggars but today a beggar had shown me meaning of being a king. So now when I see a beggar, I don’t despise him and turn my nose around….because I now know that it’s not money that differentiates a beggar from a king but the realization of the truths of life…something which we all tend to forget and we move up higher in life.
The newspaper, the idiot box, the radio, the ‘rickshaw walla’ and the discussion with my colleagues…..all hover around the menace kid……”CORRUPTION”…so much so that its reminds me of “DENNIS(CORRUPTION) THE MENACE”.
The issue has long been the precursor of many a debates and discussions…..but the question still remains what is HONESTY, the answer to corruption? Every one has his/her own views……scholars, preachers, saints and religion provide enough material on the topic to make a reading of a life time. And most of us in fact read it too but still find it difficult to emulate and inculcate.
One fine morning I again woke up with the same cloudy state of mind, little knowing that as the day would fall the clouds would wither away……I was about to learn the greatest lessons of life and that too from a very unusual teacher.
Being Tuesday, I decided to pay a visit a hanumaan temple, a schedule I used to follow rigorously. The temple was the usual sight…..people queuing up for an appointment with the almighty. Everyone trying to please him with plethora of things so that their long list of demands may be fulfilled and so was i.
Then there were those who were there to have their share…..the mighty beggars (everyone knows God’s not going to have all that ‘prasad’!), most of whom were small kids (oh poor kids!!).
So as per my ritual, after offering my prayers to the lord, I decide to do some charity. I got out and started distributing the ‘prasad’ among the brigade of young children outside.
The first one was a small girl (hardly 7 to 8 years old). I somehow remembered her, as she had this proud and contended look on her face. After meticulously going through the line, trying to hold the principles of equality by distributing equal amount of ‘prasad’ to everyone, I realized that I had been too meager.
I was still left with some ‘prasad’. Getting a bit late for my further schedule, I just decided to give it to the nearest beggar. I took the ‘prasad’ in my hand and extended it, not realizing what I was going to get in return.
Nobody took that Prasad, instead I heard a sweet voice saying, “I have already got my share of it, kindly give it to the boy sitting in that corner, you missed him”.
I was shocked!! I looked to see who it was. It was the same beggar girl smiling at me.
In that one sentence she explained to me what so many years, so many people and so many books had not been able to do. This was honesty exemplified!!
The world seemed to go round in my head. I was speechless. Here was a beggar with a heart bigger than a king. My mind was racing down the memory lane as scene after scene; I remembered how I had, trying to be a king, landed up being a beggar. All those times when I pushed my way ahead to get into a train, a school, a college, a job.
I remembered all those times when I had got more than what I deserved and hid it taking it as a privilege. But this moment of truth changed it all.
Life has it’s own ways of teaching us lessons. All my life I had despised the beggars but today a beggar had shown me meaning of being a king. So now when I see a beggar, I don’t despise him and turn my nose around….because I now know that it’s not money that differentiates a beggar from a king but the realization of the truths of life…something which we all tend to forget and we move up higher in life.
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