Accept the reality

Imagine that you have to speak in front of people, buy something important, decide a matter related to life or business, in such situations sometimes we worry too much or think too much and too far then we should. It will be better if we do our best and do not over expect about the outcomes. Thinking and wondering about the results and future puts us in an uncomfortable state if the thoughts are not based on the facts and figures. We should evaluate and consider the tangible facts and calculate the outcomes however we must keep a check on the baseless doubts and speculations.

Things happen – we can’t control every thing how hard we may try but life gets easier if we accept uncertainty as a “constant” in every equation of life. Even though I know and admit that it is easier said than done – if you start trying you can get better at managing your life.

Ah and for those who are lucky to not meddle with the affairs of physics and chemistry as a student, although I strongly believe that everyone should study a little bit about these subjects to get a better understanding of things around us, a “constant” is an entity which everyone has to accept to balance an equation or in other words, without accepting a “constant” like “Pi” the famous 22/7, and “G” the gravitational constant, and “K” the spring constant some very important matters cannot be concluded. Likewise in the matters of life, accepting “uncertainty” as a constant simplifies it multifold.

I recently realized that we should not limit the popular saying “nothing lasts forever” to a cup of ice-cream or a rainbow as it also applies very precisely to various aspects of our life. Our childhood, the time that we spend with our friends and family, beauty and so many other things end somewhere – change is inevitable and if we are prepared for these changes, we can deal with the ups and downs in a better way.

By seeing our life divided into various phases and parts we can prepare ourselves in advance about the possible changes related to particular parts in the future to minimize the surprise factor or to prepare ourselves to deal with the upcoming situations. If I do sports for 4 to 5 hours in a day, I should know that maybe after some years I will only be able to play for 2 hours or even less than that someday. If I work, it is possible that after some years I won’t be able to continue working. These harsh realities and many more riddles of life that can be more distressing and uncomfortable to talk about should be brought into consideration before they surprise us.

This approach of accepting reality in advance can make the transitions through different phases of life less painful and lead us to a peaceful end. Although many of us these days live like they are gonna live forever. Isn’t that so?

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Balance

There is some sort of balance in the apparently disturbed and chaotic world around us. The more one starts to understand it, life becomes easier and peaceful. I won’t go in to the details of the creation of humans as this topic is subjective to one’s beliefs however observing the way mankind has lived in this world reveals that we are programmed in a certain way. We get bored – we yearn for change. We want more – even if we have enough. We get jealous, we want to be known and respected by others and interestingly most of our natural inclinations are negatives. When we try to find a balance between these desires and the options and ways that are beneficial for us as well as others – we are considered as a good human being and others don’t feel threatened by our actions. When we become stronger than our inner self and overcome all the negativeness to an extent where we are happy to cull our desires and choose those options and ways that are more beneficial to others – we become a saint and people truly respect us for what we have achieved.

Note: The tussle between a person and the desires that keep bubbling in its heart keeps going on until the last breath. On any given day you can be the best of the bests or worst of the worsts. Watch out for it:)

At least, try to seek balance.

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Present

Time flies – it certainly does. Our environment, our lives as well as the lives of people around us keep reminding us that the wheels are rolling. As it is on the move – it is being spent – It signifies the importance of every single moment – specially the present moment. Although there is so much to see and do in this world – our life spans can never be enough to taste all that has been served on the table therefore we should learn to be thankful for all that is being presented to us and appreciate what is on our plate.

To be able to enjoy what we are capable of enjoying, we need to show some courage against the odds. Think of a child who wakes up on a winter morning and clumsily drags himself out of his bed to go out in the sunlight – after hours of sleep in the long winter night his eyes will not be ready to face the sun at first – however, as few seconds will pass he won’t squint anymore as now he’ll be able to keep his eyes wide open and see what’s happening around him. Just like that when we face a sudden transition or a challenge in our life we become a squinting kid – at that time we must persevere, and if we do so – we’ll become eligible for the “present”.

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Babysit yourself

Sometimes you come to bed physically and emotionally bruised. Your muscles ache from the exercise and your heart is kind of numb to expect anything from anyone. That’s the time when you have no doubts – you clearly see that every one is busy in their own life. Your friends, relatives and colleagues only share a certain part of your life and for the rest of the time you have to babysit yourself. You have to take the responsibility to make yourself happy because others are busy in doing the same for themselves. Just remember that your attempt to create happiness should not be a trouble for anyone else. I might be wrong or i might have had bad experiences but that’s what i believe before closing my eyes to sleep tonight.

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Staying up until wee hours

When it starts getting dark outside and mortals get tired of trying to justify their existence in this world, most of them come back to their abodes to  refill their bodies with the food and get ready for the next day.

Once done with the dinner, they pick up their gadgets or watch the broadcasts and media streams until their eyes start twitching and they fall asleep.

However there are some people who cannot sleep even if their eyes are twitching and their bodies yearning for rest.

Either they are insomniacs or the ones who are lucky enough to encounter deep moments that are worth staying awake for.

Our bodies are designed to sleep after staying active for some hours. If we work at night, our bodies need rest during the day and vice versa however sometimes our mind is so active that it prevents us from unconsciousness.

Here are some results of my consciousness, scattered in the sentences written below:

Probably its in the nature of human beings to get bored. We get bored of TV channels, our phones, weather, places and people. And still there are some entities which stay interesting for us and we never get tired of them. These entities can be good or bad for us. For instance a smoker never gets tired of cigarettes even when he knows that every next smoke drags him closer to his death. We can stay awake with some people every night and on the contrary we might find ourselves looking for reasons to sleep or do something on our phone instead of expressing our views and ideas to some people. In short our choices and amount of control on ourselves influences our life.

Life is an interesting stage and we ought to play our roles well. We can’t rely on the scripts provided by the director as life requires us to be spontaneous. Whether its day or night, we should thank those streams of thoughts and moments that light up the lanterns of wisdom in our mind. Wisdom gives us the courage to detach our soul from selfishness and all such diseases which make it heavy. Once the soul is unburdened it rises up like a cloud. After all, it’s easy to run a marathon if you are light on your heels. During such times our soul steps up on the ladder of realization and we start seeing the things in their true form. Our grievances start melting, our grudges start vanishing and all we are left in our heart is love. The love for all the humanity. The love for all the living and non living things with the knowledge that all the things that exist in this world are a part of us.

At these late hours of the night i have no doubt in the fact that I have a connection with the trees, the mud, the people belonging to any color and race and everything that exists. And to honor that connection I should always do good and think good for others without expecting anything in return.

It might happen that you’ll be misunderstood – your good thoughts and best possible arrangements might not bring the desired results for you and others because you are only one of the billions of human beings living on this earth and everyone acts and feels according to the level of their mind and soul.  However if your intentions are good and selfless, peace will be your reward.

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It’s too hot outside

There are numerous beings who silently play their roles and duties without catching our attention. Although the modern world has made us indifferent to the people around us however if we open our hearts and eyes to see their beautiful efforts, it helps us in tackling the doldrums in our lives with a better understanding.

The temperatures are on the rise in the city where i work and every day i see a security guard in a dark uniform in front of the office building. I feel sad  for him because he has to work in difficult conditions. He greets us with a smile at the gate – opens the zip of our laptop bags to take a quick look inside and says “Thank you” while we get inside the office.

whenever he gets some idle time his hands go for the packet of cigarettes in his pocket. I always do some chit chat with him during that short meeting every morning.

Sometimes i ask him “why you check our bags every day?”.

On some days i say “today i wont let you check my bag, i am in a hurry” and as expected, he always declines this offer with a wide smile.

Well, the point of writing these things down is to show that there is so much happiness and beauty hidden in every human being around us. If we let them feel comfortable – we can see many beautiful sides of them. I am sure he feels quite comfortable with me 🙂 Sometimes he makes fun of the fruits tucked in the side pocket of my bag or comments on the size of the bottle that i carry for water.

Yesterday I asked him why he smokes so much and his answer was “It’s too hot here, outside”

Damn! He should be a philosopher 🙂

So friends if you’ll look around you’ll also notice many people who seem less gifted or their life seems difficult but i’ll beg you to never look down upon them. Stop by their side sometimes to talk or just exchange a smile if you are in a hurry. They are very beautiful people. More beautiful and interesting than your expectations.

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After-effects of a thought provoking dentist

The dentist inserted the needle three times in my gum – once inwards and twice outwards while pushing my lips aside with his thumb covered in white Nitrile glove.  Later when i reached my room after the treatment and as the evening delved in to the cold night it occurred to me as if i didn’t take those injections in my gum. Although the area around my tooth was still numb and swollen – i felt as if all that anesthesia seeped down to my heart and pushed me into a different state of mind.

Usually i avoid medication and try to let nature follow its course in the matters of health but as the dental treatment was a clear violation of the course of nature so i drank the milkshake and swallowed the pills as prescribed by the dentist.

Then i came to my mattress and slipped under the sheets. I was in a state where i was able to think but my emotions were dull. I opened my laptop to finish some lingering commitments – in the meanwhile i called Pop on Whatsapp and felt that she is sad so i left the work unfinished and asked her to call on  Skype. She is very dear to me and it was painful to see her sad so i implored her to tell me what’s making her feel so. She told me the reason of her sadness – it wasn’t something new – it was a quest that had made her feel bad before and now it was doing so again. I wanted to take her out of that situation but as i had told her before – i didn’t feel myself capable of doing so; and in short i failed again.

I understand that every one expects to be treated well and trusted however we don’t always meet the expectations. Sometimes due to our weaknesses and sometimes only due to ignorance. When we open ourselves to others its always a new experience – sometimes we get support or a better suggestion to cope up – sometimes we get the opposite of that and these responses vary from situation to situation. Sometimes we are not sure about the consequences and our baseless fears stop us from acting in the way people want us to act.

I was in a strange state of mind at that time – my mind was  lingering on the extent of loneliness of human beings. I was analyzing the human life as a whole and all i could see was the loneliness. I was seeing the selfishness that takes birth in us to cater our individuality. I realized that how close we may get to a person – how hard we may try to make  someone happy – still some rifts stay unbridgeable. Life has different layers. People who come across us for a short period – they see our outer most layer. The more we spend time with someone the more we are able to see the layers that lay below. These layers don’t end – a layer lies below every layer and if a person is able to reach its deepest layer it will find itself alone there.

Every person on the face of earth is unique. The surroundings and situations do mold us but still members of a family, pupils in a classroom  and residents of a city are different from each other in many ways. In fact it adds color to the life. The uniqueness of every individual keeps the world an interesting place with numerous possibilities. Likewise it’s wise to understand that our powers and limitations are also unique.

Our friends and family are more aware of our layers than the people who don’t know us and we are also familiar of their behaviors. It feels good to be with them because it eases our eternal anxiety that rises from the uncertainty. Therefore we feel comfortable in their presence. Although it is painful to fail our dear ones but we need to understand that we are not super humans and it is impossible to win all the time. Sometimes we have to realize our limitations and accept defeat. Similarly, we should understand the limitations of others and forgive.

It occurred to me that this understanding can be applied to many situations in life. Hence;  on a lighter note, i forgave the bonafide dentist for those last-minute surprises that he gave me in the last three visits – and closed my eyes to sleep.

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Rotten

Bring two eggs – make an omelet with one and let the other rot in the corner of your kitchen cabinet.

Bring some tomatoes – consume the fresh red tomatoes and leave one of them to rot with the egg.

There is an expiry date of every thing that exists – you’ll understand this fact very well when the egg and tomato will make a mess in your kitchen.

I think that we should not miss any opportunity to help others and share happiness. That’s the only way to stay fresh. The best way to live is to convert our energies in to some thing beautiful.

After all we are a little more powerful than eggs and tomatoes – so never settle for the cabinet and try to be useful for yourself and society.

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Save the forests

The forests implore

with frightened eyes

Save us! before we vanish

Wake up! or we’ll die

 

The ornaments of mother earth – they adorn the milieu with green

The mighty lungs of nature – they keep the air clean

The damsels that wink at the pacing clouds – to make them wash our cities

The beautiful forests – they are home to numerous species

 

They kept serving us eagerly

We kept them under the knife

And now their heart is sinking

As we kept attacking their life

 

They urge our mercy – They need our attention

They cared us for ages – They truly deserve redemption

O dear humans! Love your forests

O dear humans! Save them today

Help them grow – help them nurture

Manage them well and preserve the future

 

 

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July 4th – Resolve

The river would be flowing – probably the berries would be turning red from green and the little wild flowers would be ready to pop out from their buds.

Seems like it’s time to tie the laces.

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