Life

Howdy!

I have always been very curious and restless about the uncertain element that human life has to offer. My quest in understanding the complexities of this scenario brought forth many interesting and diverse perspectives. Like the old adage goes "One does tend to get wiser with age" (although age truly is just a number), I think I now understand 5% more than what I did a decade ago.

This complexity now has a broader meaning in my encyclopedia. To a great extent, I now believe that this whole scenario is very simple. It is not complex in itself, it's we humans who have it all mixed up. In many ways, we have used our "so-called" intellect in converting the most lucid thing into a convoluted web.

My ever hyper active mind has always posed various questions many of which continue to be questions till this day. However, I have managed to quench this thirst of my mind with answers to many things that have ruffled its peace and serenity. One of the things that I never understood and honestly was oblivious too was regarding the so called "gray areas" in a human's life. I am a black and white person and what I think is what I speak. I prefer keeping things simple and am not a big fan of reading between the lines!!

Well, that's me and it took this ME about 30 years to understand that most humans around are big fans of gray areas :) Ahem!! Better late than never I guess.....
It's still quite puzzling and to a great degree amusing as well; that people would prefer leading a complicated life rather than a simple one that the Supreme Lord created in the first place.

A couple of observations that I find incredibly amusing:

• Most folks are big fans of hierarchy....probably even conditioned to this weird thought process.
• Most folks believe in transactional relationships. That probably explains why we come across a common thought in many books that quote, "it takes several years to build relations, takes a moment to have it destroyed"

Now a more detailed description
By hierarchy, I mean things that have already been in place and the way we are conditioned to follow it. Most of us go about doing things the way our parents did it or their parents did it blah blah. I believe that we are all connected to other humans through our past actions and every individual who appears in our life has a specific role to play. That holds true for everybody including our parents and siblings. Why then do we get caught in the web of prioritizing folks when we all are created equally? Just because somebody is born as our sibling or as one of our parents in this lifetime; why do we shove other humans somewhere in the back-burner? Kind of weird isn't it..........that's the gray area for me!!!!


Another extreme is the case of transactional relationships. Regardless of the infinite times one proves his / her loyalty and love to another human being; one misunderstanding / error creates huge crevices in the relationship. It does not even make logical sense. How can one fail to see or acknowledge the several occasions in the past that another human has been nice to them? Why do we give in to the urge of passing judgments based on an isolated incident? Again......a gray area per my dictionary.


I would love to introduce a person in my life as a kind hearted soul rather than be stuck with labels like brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunt's......endless labels!! I believe a world that operates on utopian love would be a much better world than an entangled and variegated one!

Journey # ......

Salutations to my Master and Lord....


Ok folks I am back.....long awaited post I guess. I apologize for keeping a lot of people guessing as to how this new chapter of my life has been treating me so far!!
It has been exactly 10 days since I landed back home / back to my roots or whatever one may choose to call it. 



There are a lot of thoughts that seem to run parallel in my hyper active mind and I regret not having noted down the contents as and when it occurred. This blog would be a summary of those observations and in time I hope to add as much information as I can.


After having come back to this rocking city - Mumbai after almost 5 years, it was a pleasant culture shock! The progress that I see around is just mind boggling!! As much as I am impressed with the development, I do miss the quintessential features of the city that existed once upon a time. I believe that folks like me who are frozen in time can identify with this feeling.


There are some stark characteristics of the city that have not changed and I am grateful to see the existence of those old things. 

• I loved seeing the cows on some of the streets :) (Have not seen goats as yet!!)
• The concept of the "city never sleeps" still exists.
• Considerate neighbors are still around
• One never feels lonely in this city......each time you find yourself slipping into one of those dark memory lanes, all that you need to do is just step out and go for a walk. The sight of other souls around is quite motivational :) As Mark Twain said, "The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself". Vibrant cities and environment help in bringing that comfortable feeling. 

I am yet to take public transport here....will do so pretty soon. After abstaining from consuming junk food (another striking feature of this city) for about 5 days, I finally indulged in satisfying my palate with some mouth watering "vada pav". For the non mumbaites, vada pav is the Indian version of the vegetable burger. Rather, vegetable burger is a refined version of the original vada pav :))

For the first time in many years, I watched a movie at a local movie theater here. I shall upload the pictures soon. It was awesome, the sound quality was excellent and I was very impressed with the service extended during the intermission. The fact that the employees of the theater came in immediately after the screening to clean the place was another conspicuous feature.

I also witnessed the rough edges that co-exist in many dynamic and vibrant cities. Last evening as I was walking down a busy street with an old friend, I noticed a man lying by the curb completely drunk. It was quite heart rending to see the plight of this human lying totally oblivious of his surroundings and nobody to reach out. It was a reminder of the sombre side of society and human beings.


I also met one of my amazing professors from my college days. I am in complete awe of the way she continues to inspire student's day in and day out. Her love for fitness and karate is quite commendable as well :)


I am now all geared up on working towards my long awaited dream. Updates to be posted soon.

On that optimistic note, I end this blog. Adios for now, take care and ALmighty Bless!!

Additional banter & acknowledgements:

1. Thanks mom for being the greatest inspiration in my life!!
2. Thanks to my godparents for continuing to be my pillar of strength. Miss you folks
3. K....you can plan a trip to see me soon. I do not think the APA rules apply in this part of the world ;-)
4. Special thanks to R's musings for having motivated me to kick-start my blogs again. 
5. I am proud of my friends H & U for having adopted two adorable baby girls. Such noble acts re-enforce the goodness that exist on this planet.
6. Love all my friends and well wishers for their continued support. I am lucky to have you all in my life