~ An Act of Minimalism ~

Sometimes dire situations make you ponder upon strange happenings. things which you might not have realized in life , which might come calling to you unexpectedly .

The current Covid19 lock-down is one such situation which suddenly happened to all of us. “Caught Unawares" as they say it, we all find ourselves quarantined in our homes by a government order as the only solution to beat this peculiarity of life. What this situation taught me and most of us was that you can be easily beaten up by a small microcosm and thus loose almost everything in knack of time. Your achievements both physical and intangible. Your fragility of life can be challenged at any moment as the case today.

But as they say every cloud has a silver lining and can make you learn far off possibilities which you might not every have thought of otherwise.

As this situation continue to happen, what became my share of learning was the act of 'MINIMALISM’. This virtue came to me as a "Eureka Moment" in my life and suddenly I find myself practicing this unique habit. What started as a search for a particular T-shirt in my cupboard ended me as a changed person. A man with a different perspective towards object lying in our homes, objects which takes you to a time when you have to remember as to when these were of use to you.

Starting from clothes we wear, the day to day utensils and other such items lying barely idle in our homes, there could be many such thought provoking instances which made you believe when you just wanted these object desperately enshrining your home decor but with passage of time these very objects have faded themselves in oblivion but now they stay lifeless just on neglected side of your home satisfying your ego.

I am not going back to time and plan to live a medieval life , the only intent of my embracing minimalism is to de-clutter my existence and free myself of unnecessary stack of objects which are of no or minimal use and which I can live without!

Our almirah's might be stacked with hordes of your best selected clothes which we had collected for differential occasions, but seldom we had got an opportunity to wear them. Same principle applies to zillion other things which might be close to our heart at those moments of time but now the need of the hour is to part ways with them, though might be with a heavy heart, but you know intrinsically that you would not be in a position to use them to your favor. Times have move us all forward to other more important things as most of us have tread various degrees of life's vicissitudes and now have taken ourselves to more important journey, the priorities have certainly changed...

Gauging my day to day life and what is that keeps me going during the day lead me to think parallelly about electronic junk which was of no use to me as I stay engrossed in my daily living. Time could be another factor which is a rarity nowadays and which has lead me to discard these lifeless electronic objects. But on a deep thought it begets my sense of understanding that these are actually not required now, and I would be quite happy to live sans them. There are zillion of other nitty-gritty of life's which demand your attention,who knows there could be another such time when humanity would again befall and have to cage themselves due to a microcosm attack as a greater grand design of nature and this time you are not lucky enough to survive !!!

Penultimately, it is certainly not the sense objects that need minimalism, our accumulated thoughts are another culprit which need a watch , the effort is on....

~ Not CORONA but KARMA ~

Today when all of us are entering an era when we can find our self in precarious positions viz a viz uncertainties of future. We have been severely downgraded by our own actions and are thus paying the price of many misadventures that we have done or are doing. "Sapiens" as we call ourselves and rest on the top echelons of the food chain, we consider ourselves to be Demi-Gods threatening an entire ecosystem of this beautiful planet.

Equality may be a fact which is less prevalent as according to our thinking, but nature has its own grand designs to justify things in its own fashion. The current "Corona" scare is a certain eyeopener for all of us who have a sense of pride and believe in inequalities of living. Today the war is not in the periphery of humanity but human existence, a war between homo sapiens who have been humbled and outcast-ed by organisms.

Can this be derived from the Curse of the zillion animals who have been killed in the name of food, for satiating our taste buds and our own economic greed? or Is this the curse of animals who perished in unstoppable Australian Wildfires? These can be merely inferences of the devastation which is on the cards for all of us if we don’t mend our ways of living and continuous engage in torture with our flora and fauna.

This can be truly considered to be Gods Act of balancing things, a strong hint for all of us to mend things and start living a righteous life. A life bestowed to us to coexist with the living and inanimate. We forgot the basic lesson and started to act our own way, as a result we are at the crossroads of our own destiny, a future of our own making!

For me this epidemic is not "CORONA" but "KARMA" the dance of the getting things settled via your past actions and inaction's. What nature is trying to teach us in its own mild and subtle way? Why are we not getting aligned with the messages from Nature missing a quintessential quality which has been ingrained in us "Humility towards All".

We have lost our touch with our wisdom masters who used to teach us the way of ancient living. The all bestowing “Ancient Wisdom” is the need of the hour and should be put to practice. We have to limit our desires which will lead us to sufferings. With this I ponder on this famous Sanskrit quote which has been profound in my living and am seeing in happening in the current scenario.

यद्यत्संद्दश्यते लोके सर्वं तत्कर्मसम्भवम् ।

सर्वां कर्मांनुसारेण जन्तुर्भोगान्भुनक्ति वै ॥

“Whatever is seen among men (whether pleasure or pain) is born of Karma (actions). All creatures enjoy or suffer, as per their past actions.”

Hope this brings us wisdom and truth amongst our living !

~ Its All In The Planets ~

Sitting and engrossed in my own worldly thoughts and passing my time over a Red light, I come across an unusual knock on my car window.
A sudden jilt passes through my spine as I come out of my daydreaming time, looking outside I visualize a street urchin looking quite emotively towards me and in expectation of something which I didn't knew.
The next moment, he uplifts his hand and brings forward a pot full of oil and a 'Iron" Image protruding out of bucket. After an aware peep, I could see that there were loads of coins of different denominations immersed in mustard oil.

The next sentence I hear is " Jai Shani Dev" and with expected eyes, the boy starts to look at me with a frivolous smile. Now that i start to have a hint of his expectations, I ask him some questions out of my own inquisition.

"What is your name beta?"
"Ravi" , comes the reply.
"Do you go to school?"
"Nahi Uncle - I don’t have time."

I stopped for some time and thought at his fragile age as he doesn't know what he is doing to his life, quite oblivious to a dark future which is waiting for him. My thoughts come to a halt again as he again asks me for some alms to be put in the bucket.

Another question which begets my mind was " Why he must have been doing this? What circumstances made him put in a situation which he currently is?". I probably wont be able to know answers to these questions ever I suppose.

I ask him one more question " Ravi beta what is this bucket for? and what metal image you have put in the bucket? what purpose does it serve?"

He had a ready made answer to all of my questions.
"Uncle - This is Shani Maharaj, yeh aapke kaam sudharenge."
"Aap paise daloge toh aapkae kaam sidh honge."

I asked him one final question " Kaun hai Shani dev? kya aapko pata hai?"

The answer came as a deep silence and quickly he went to another car as he didnt had so much time to stick to one "Customer".

The episode kept me thinking about Ravi and what stars behold for him in times to come,

Finally time never stops and this happened with me as well, as honk from cars behind get my attention, I gear up for the next Red-Light to meet another 'Ravi" with his side of the story...As they say , the Journey never stops....

~ Woman of Substance ~

She comes to our house everyday on a stipulated time, doing her daily tasks in a time bound fashion. Draped in a worn out Saree , she is a working woman by definition. As I see her fully absorbed in her circumstances, thinking and devoted to her job role, she says "Namaste Bhaiya".The revert is synonymous and is with equal fervour. I chance upon breaking a talk with her just out of inquisition and to know about her family - she is new in our neighborhood and was never seen before. On further inquiry, I get to know that she is partaking this "Job" out of self interest and for her two kids who I see standing down near her Rickshaw.

 I ask " What is the name of these two beautiful souls?" -
Pat comes the reply - "Bhaiya "Saurav and Gaurav" both are about 6 years of age.
As the conversation matures, another question props up in my mind " Do they study didi?" - The answer is "Yes", they do study in a "Sarkari" School.

Further she tells me " Bhaiya, I have full intention to make them educated as I am not, My only wish is to make them something out of all the hard work I am doing and ready for sacrificing myself for them!

A sense of belief in education is what she is striving for and why not as that is the best chance she has for her old age. The struggles of life has made her to be tough and vent out to earn and make a respectable living. She could have begged but "NO", the dignity of living gives her the power to respond to tough times. She will win for sure and would beat the circumstances which time is offering her, believing in a perfect saying " When life offers a lemon, make a lemonade!"
For the time being, I have two new small friends now, everyday they visit our home and go happy with an ear to ear smile... That is what was destined for myself and a teaching to follow...God work's in tandem with people around you in differential situations. Your test of time could start anywhere.
I certainly would love to see them grow and achieve the miraculous out of the situation they are currently in ...

By the way , the lady of honour is our Garbage Collector and She being a woman of substance has turned out to be an authentic life teacher to All of us...!

~ Traffic of Life ~

What happens when you don’t challenge the temptation of a green Signal of a traffic light in order to cross it without stoppage. You maintaining the same speed and resist to speed up as prudence sets in and it says “till the time you reach – It would already be a Red light, so stay calm at your own pace.”

Thinking so, a car overtakes you as if it has fallen in the temptation of Inviting Green Light, not knowing if he would be able to surpass it in full confidence. 

I forget to chase the small challenge which was just in front of me….but as time unfolds and reach my destination – a traffic signal which I had to halt due to impending Red light, I come across the same car standing in awe of me. All of my apprehensions came true and that what I had thought was based on my experience of driving and its calculations…. This philosophy holds true in life

The ultimate truth is “Death” which is a red light we have to stop on – this is inevitable and everyone will  achieve it . On the Contrary – the Only Lie is – Life which is a chimera and a salutation of your journey on earth. So the speed with which you are travelling matters in this travel – enrich your journey with your friends and family, don’t rush through to achieve or beat the next signal- the only time you would do is , you have to stop at the ultimate as providence has its own way of setting things out!

PS: Stay calm while you tread this journey called life – ponder over its happenings and the people you have befriended and made company with. Your time is a silent clicking clock which will stop when its own time comes…. Happy Journeying …!!!

~ The Two Marquee Gentlemen ~

Let me today pen down about some of the souls which touch me night and day and that I cannot stop thinking about them at times....

Sudhir - my friend, the pulsation with which he does his work is enormous.Completely engrossed in his daily chores, he greets me with aplomb and with a sense of warmth.
What does he do coming so early , he is a janitor and does all the so called menial jobs which is in th office. From cleaning the desks and arranging of chairs to mopping the floor, the hearty soul is fully charged up with his to-do list. A gentle "Hello Sir Good Morning" is what makes your day to begin with. The energy and humbleness which you get to see whilst you observe Sudhir from  your seat makes you think a zillion questions. What if you were at his place? what would have been his situation that makes him do this work at this stage of his life - barely in his early twenties! At his age, we were all students or must have started our careers.
Life can be tough and demanding for man, you dont know what type of situation one is living with,every day with his relentless work Sudhir teaches me one idiom - no work is menial enough that is should not be done! what life is offering him at this stage of his career, he is doing it with dignity.

Second life i would like to touch is our office guard - Tarachand - The standalone guard who wishes you with rapt attention at the entrance of your office gate. The zeal with which he greets you when you step into office shows the love and appreciation he has for you as he has for his own job.
The sheer strength his duty demands 12 hours standing and maintaining guest records can turn out to be a humongous job for anyone of us.Another key trait he carries is his updated knowledge of the world of politics and economics. You will find him updated in both of this subjects and can often embarrass you for your lack of knowledge on these two.I often confide many political situations with him and to y surprise, he has never let me down on both of these subject.Taking  a short 30 min lunch break, I sometime see him walking the cafeteria aisle, a gentle greet of asking about lunch is all that we speak upon, the next instance, whilst i finish my meal, I see him on his duty-position handling guests and thus is back to square one.


Everyday your life's framework is shaped by many souls whom you touch knowingly or unknowingly. Without them , you might feel crippled in doing your day to day tasks or for that matter situation might not seem to be so easy for you. Shower your respect for these nameless souls who are a major contributors to our lives day in and out.
They might be having a tough situation today, but who knows what is coming their way ? What sort of life they would turn themselves for - Their kids stand
Wee have seen such innumerable examples that kids of rickshawpullers, vegetable vendors, Autodriver's, Household maids have out shined kids from better off families and proven their mettle and become a person of repute in our high esteemed society!

Lets spare a though for "Friends" who are part of your day to day life and with whom you can share a novel bond to be remember for a lifetime - specially when you would retire from your current organisation OR would leave it one day !