To be or not to be...that is the question

This age old question is plaguing us for eons; at every juncture that we take a crucial decision, this question comes to haunt us.Shakespeare put it bang on target when he made his character speak about this life changing dilemma in his great tragedy Hamlet. 

The poets and writers often can be pretty clairvoyant and look to the human nature and our psyche in ways different to our own thoughts. Take the Sermons on the Mount by Lord Jesus or when Krishna is speaking the Gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra or the Quran as revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Even if we take Krishna to be a purely mythological character spouting the thoughts of Ved Vyaasa, one can still observe the far reaching glimpses of human life. The most important aspect is that the truths remain true for all ages.

Let us think of the more relatively recent poets, Walt Whitman in his poem "Leaves of Grass" or Shelley in the "Ode to the Grecian Urn" or William Wordsworth in "Solitary Reaper" or Tagore in his offering "Gitanjali" or modern poets of India like Keki Daruwala,Vikram Seth or Kamala Das..................................they all talk of human nature in relation to his psyche,the world,nature at large and showing us glimpses of the future.

When we are taught the classics in school and college, we study them as part of our syllabus, never  really going in to the depths, the underlying meaning...it all becomes realistic to us when we experience the real world.

So the question remains........................to be or not to be??????? 

Thank You Kids............................................................you have fulfilled me.    

RANDOM THOUGHTS 


Tomorrow is my birthday; I turn 48. Its nothing special but another year added to my life cycle.There are still lots of things left to do in life; many peaks to climb in fact. Hopefully the lows in life have been left far behind. The years have added, to my personality and experience both, rounding the sharp edges and sharpening the blunt ones. Living in the world of kids, both small and big,have taught me many things and made me deeply aware of their developmental cycle. I have also realized that children feel changes happening around them more than we anticipate. We often are dismissive of this fact and very matter of factly say.."oh , they are kids" perhaps underestimating their abilities to comprehend.
We are perpetually in a hurry to fill our children with 'all' that we know forgetting that children have the capability to create knowledge and contribute as our equals.

My years in the school has taught me;

that there is always a different perspective
that one can get love from various and unexpected sources
that there is always something you can do for everyone
that there is beauty in every child
that potential can be hidden and comes out only if you persevere
that every view point needs to be listened to patiently
that there is hope of getting success even in the worst case scenario.





                                                 

LIFE'S LESSONS FOR THE YOUNG

Sometimes life throws us bouncers, sometimes a curve ball while sometimes its a straight googly! What is interesting for us though is, how we deal with it- take it on the chin, on the shoulders or on our head, ugh.....it hurt. What does all this leads us to? taste of reality with a jhatka of real life or a test of our inner strength; how mentally and physically strong we are?

The way we have been born and brought up matters a lot.The early experiences,the teenage associations,the adulthood interactions all add up to what we become later. Out of all this, i believe, our childhood experiences leave the deepest and most profound impact. Our sub-conscious mind keeps on registering the events,incidents,the snatches of conversation,even the nuances of all that was good and not so good,which had happened,in our early years and like a film it rewinds when we enter into adulthood. The more we move towards middle age, the more we start viewing happenings,people,etc differently.Past life keeps on playing in our minds eye like a film, a movie in retrospect.

Memories are good and we need to invest in making of good memories. Ex-President Abdul Kalam said once that "you will never remember how many classes you attended in college, but you will certainly remember how you bunked classes for a movie"  Memories keep us warm on a rainy day and therefore i talked of 'investing' in it. Similar is the case with happiness, you need to work on it!

Coming back to life's googlies, i would say that memories of our childhood and early teen years, definitely are the investments we fall back on to meet them, at these times.

What do you think,readers?

                                                     

                                              

RANDOM THOUGHTS


The HT Book Challenge is on......and I realize that I am way behind in my reading list,especially in reading the works of new authors.
There was a time when we used to buy a whole lot of books from various sources, mostly second hand markets. Dad would fetch books for us from Delhi, Calcutta,Madras or whatever place he would go on his business trips.
In fact I remember we sisters would get books as 'gifts' on almost all occasions, be it Christmas,new year,birthdays,etc. How excitedly we would wait for 'our' Santa Dad to leave us gifts of books.

This is how we got introduced to classics; Gone With the Wind,Little Women,Lolita,Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea, Man in the Iron Mask, Persuasion and Lady Susan,Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights,Pride and Prejudice and of course lots and lots of romances and who-dun-its and poetry.We moved quite quickly from those mandatory Enid Blytons and Nancy Drews onto adult stuff. We were helped and egged on much by our parents' impeccable taste in literature and their discussions around the dining table.

Sadly today's kids have been totally deprived of such pleasures; I am sure they do not even know what they are missing

                               
                                  

     

Today is Rathyatra. This year is especially important for Rathyatra as it is Nabakalebara year;the new form of Lord Jagannath, the year when Lord Jagannath is carved out of the sacred 'Daaru" wood. This auspicious event happens only when two Asadha months in the Hindu calendar fall in the same year(once in 12 to 19 years). In this process, the body changes but not the soul.The soul is transferred to another body.The sacred Daaru is found through divine guidance and then the process begins.The most important part is the transfer of 'Brahm' from the old idol to the new which is done very secretly.

When we were in Rourkela this day used to be quite exciting as we would wait for the rath or chariot to appear and we would all rush to view the Lord sitting in the chariot along with his other siblings-Balaram and Subhadra. The Lord travels to his aunt's house on his annual visit for 10 days and then returns.

The whole concept is very piquant and refreshing; perhaps He is the only God who goes on this annual journey.I miss the sight and every year when I see the calendar listing of the festival, it brings back so many childhood memories. 

                                       




Nature Diary

When my son was very young I used to read to him stories. One particular story was about birds.A pair of birds searching for a home to make nest and lay eggs.Finally they build one on a shelf in Mr Smith's garage As they settle down the Smith family notices them and every member shows a different reaction.They change their outdoor routine to accommodate the birds activities by making the least noise.Their comes a time when they tiptoe around all outdoor work so the babies are not disturbed. The climax comes when the babies are attacked by a bigger bird one day, when both parents are out to gather food.....

What struck me in the story was the compassion shown by the family in propagating the birds' life cycle and the protective feeling they developed towards the visitors who were obviously there for a short time.Animals can help us develop our inner love.Just watch yourself when you hug your pet;a feeling of intense joy and compassion flows in you.You feel energetic and happy.You tend to attract good luck around you as you are feeling 'lucky'. The Bible says that God created animals to help us and its not for the obvious reasons only. We need to give some thought on how they help us.

                                                             
                                               Light and Darkness: The Essence of Life



We all agree that 'light' signifies enlightenment,a ray of hope,purity and progress. Conversely darkness indicates ignorance,evil,regression and perhaps all what is not good.Logically both is required and is a sign of the presence of the other.We cannot see light without experiencing darkness and vice versa.Light can only be understood with the wisdom of darkness.

Perhaps that's the reason to string lights during all our festivals and social/religious occasions.

Nature Diary-

Monsoon has finally come to Rajasthan. The parched soil was waiting for the first drops and simply drank away the water.Ah! what bliss. The grass, the shrubs and trees swayed to the joy of the wet winds as if dancing to the music of rain. So many sounds of the rain....pitter-patter of the needle like drops,the plop-plop of the fat drops from the roof,the tip-tip of the water from the leaves and the swishing sound of the branches laden with rain drops.

Mother nature is at its best now. Overnight grass has come up on our fields and gardens and the sand dunes and mud banks along the roads have a thin sheen of green. After a long time saw some frogs in our area, a rarity.

Wishing and hoping this continues and I can go for a long drive or maybe a trek or maybe a rain dance party followed by some good food?

Random Thoughts


How can "fat" chance and "slim" chance be similar?

I read this very interesting sentence in TOI yesterday.It set me thinking about the underlying meaning......we generally use 'fat chance' to mean that the person or situation has very very less chance to be successful, while 'slim chance' is used to mean the exact same sentiment.....then why use diametrically opposite terms to mean the same thing.

The English language abounds with such treasures. We all know of various literary devices and keep on using them liberally in our conversations.Whether we do it appropriately or not is again another story.......our own regional languages are sometimes a barrier here and of course our brand of English- the Hinglish plays a decisive role. Interestingly all countries once ruled by the British or otherwise have come out with their own brand of English. In fact the official page of Oxford University Press comes out with new additions to the Enaglish language from different sources(including countries,etc) every year and it's incorporated in their Dictionary with source and root word.

A friend forwarded a nugget, worth sharing, about a little known device- Paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous(Winston Churchill was a master in using this device and loved them).

1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.But it's still on my list

3. Since light travels faster than sound,some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. To steal ideas from a person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

5. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

6. You are never too old to learn something stupid

7. I'm supposed to respect elders, but its getting harder and harder to find one now.

8. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target

9. Women can never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer belly and still think they are sexy

10. If I agreed with you we would both be wrong.

Readers, let's add some more,huh?

RANDOM THOUGHTS

When we were young a good way to make friends was through the system of penpals.All newspapers,magazines would carry lists of penpals.We would avidly wait to see those lists and find out people who would match our interests and hobbies. Next step would be to write them the first introductory letter and then wait for their replies.A girl or boy would write to many with a hope to establish contacts with diverse group of people from all around the world.There was no bar of any kind.In fact parents happily endorsed these friendships and at times encouraged it.The whole friendship hinged on the idea that it was to be continued through letters.

We never thought that it could be potentially dangerous to get to know pure strangers and put out our personal details with them. Perhaps the world was more trusting and less a hunting ground for all sorts of crime one encounters now.

Many romances would flower,marriages consummated, life long friends made,family friendships established, visits take place, from these penpal system.

My first penpal was a postgraduate student when I was myself in school, probably in primary! One fine day he came on a 'surprise' visit and my parents and sisters and my 'penpal, all of us had a gala time with lots of good food and outing to the movies.I still have a an old snap of me and my sister with my penpal. Looking at the snap makes me wonder now what I could have been communicating with him those days??

Some days ago I was reminded of this bygone trend when I read a post of my friend on FB. Now I wonder whether those innocent friendships perpetuated and carried on through letters is something to be treasured? I do not know how the younger generation would view it.

Letters do not get written so much, esp personal letters.The time spent in selecting the type of paper,envelopes, in sitting down to write your innermost thoughts seemed so private,so precious.The joy of receiving your letters,opening the seal,saving those uncommon stamps to add to one's collection and then the pleasure of reading the letters for as many times cannot be appreciated by youngsters now.

The booming social media with its associated lingo has robbed this generation of the rich diversity of language at least................................