~ Humans of Delhi... ~

 He is a guard at a major toy shop and has to keep an eagle eye on any of the fit items which are purchased and goes out of the toy store. All sort of buys are made in the store which is mostly full of customers of all walks of life – though majority of them get pulled by the crabby cries of kids who get enticed by the sheer world of the toys they see when they pass through the store.

Wearing a mask, our lonely figure stands on the entrance of this store, sometimes having dived into his sea of thoughts - Our guard is a parent to two daughters, a fact which he so vociferously tells the kids while he smiles at them – he is the first focal point of attention for the kids entering the toy store  to the kids who see him as the first man standing on the front of the shop –

A little gaze at him makes me believe that he must have thought of buying these mimetic toys  for his kids too or for that matter his daughters after they knowing that their father works at a toy store, would surely have demanded a surprise gift – an ever increasing demands of kids nowadays!

Standing there for almost 10 to 12 hours, he observes kids buying best of the toys which their parents can afford or may be not but get compelled to make the purchase no matter what.

What goes in the mind of Bhuvanji when he sees kids talking home toys of various shapes and sizes – many of which are too costly for him to buy with the salary he earns? – all sorts of thoughts came pouring down on me as I stood outside with him, as there were corona restrictions and thus the store management had taken a decision to limit the customers.

As time passed and seconds transformed to minutes, I got to know more about him when I started to talk to him regarding the footfall on the toy-store and also the store opening and closing times. “Sir it is from 11:00 a.m to 9 p.m”, with that he starts to tell me that the store is a favorite of kids and that many of the toys are damn cheap and people buy loads of toys at one go!

As time passes and our guard stands with rapt attention overlooking the mall crowd, a couple comes with their young girl who is crying and looks bragging of his parent’s capacity to buy her a doll displayed on the shelves!

 As I observed, he loves to be playful with kids and he grins when any toddler just sees him as the first point of contact while entering the toy store.

As the kids came out and it was time for me to say a good bye in a hush hush tone, tomorrow again would be the same day for Bhuvanji – the job , the place remains the same but the faces of customers would change….

~ Five Friends In Need...Time, Destiny, Opportunity, Luck, and Faith...~

Quite Often, we loosely talk about those missed opportunities or that make or break moments which could have completely altered the course of our life. Just a pinch of luck could have made you sit at a position of envy for many of your friends, foes and the sundry or could it be a dance of destiny which could have made you live as a destitute with bare minimum and a ridicule of all.

Many times, we have just passed the moments of life where we have just passed or missed that kiss of luck as there was no opportune 'Time' for it. You would have got success with minimal effort with no extra qualifications or added skills or talent, but the event just happened smoothly – you got what you wanted , the situations then too were beyond your control but it just happened miraculously – “It’s the time dude...” would be call of your conscience as it had to happen at that very time! 

There would also have been many events in your previous years for which you might not have been qualified or there were better candidatures confronting your appointment, but as 'Luck' would have it, it was your day and you got that plump post or a lifetime opportunity you were seeking for a long time.

Our life altering moments are much dependent on factors beyond our control, it is the all-mix of these parameters which can make or break your zeal of achievement or for that matter your slog to achieve something. There is no denying the fact that you have to do your bit of work and keep moving for the next achievement you deem fit- you can make grandeur of a living and see yourself at a pedestal , beating all with your effort and hard work.

As the saying goes, 'Every day is a new beginning' and the adage holds ground as there are far reaching new opportunities that you can have and explore - the best of the alternatives one can think of and not limit our perception, effort and vision. Always remember, there is an open ground to be achieved, it does not mean that we have to create castles of aspirations and run for it day and night, neglecting other venues of our living. Our health, relationships, family, attitude, and whole lot of things is what needs a balance - laxity in anyone would make you fall in the spheres of oblivion and vicious cycle of mirth and depression.

Whilst we all live and reminisce our past, you would see that there were million opportunities which you didn’t won but still continued for a better one - that is the zeal which we should aim for - Every time starting afresh would solve many of our miseries of life - It is no race to be won but a journey to be enjoyed.

At the fag-end of our life, when the spectrum of our life lived would be much talked about, you will see what wrongs or right's that we did during our journey - the help we provided, the time we spent with our elders, near and dear ones and also the proudness, ego we carried on our sleeves - All would be a measurable on equal footing and would give you a name, a character in society to be remembered well after you are gone!

I always believe in some basic rules of life which I learned through my set of experiences, that you are not here till Eternity and not everything would be accomplished or would be achieved by your efforts. Many a time, the 'Unknown force', call it God, Providence Luck or a Midas-Touch that would be working in guise - Just observe this little 'hints' which life offers and live happily! Finally, Enjoy this journey and lastly keep this in mind "Many Big and far better things have been done already, don’t take the pride of doing them again!"

~ Our Oldies - Revere Them... ~

Today, I just scribble and go back to time and look at phases of life and how it was looking in 80's and 90's. There were people who were different in attitude and their values of living held them in high esteem. There are still many of them who are living as elderly and brimming with the wisdom of life for they had their set of problems and bottlenecked situations and they did pass their tests with great success.

A commonality almost all of them had was the huge burden of responsibility of their parents and also looking forward and meeting their own expectations. Whilst, they did so, they were simpler than today's beings, had morality and were grounded to the tune of listening and understanding other people's situations. Whilst they remained calm and composed for any hiccups they faltered on, almost always they came out as a winner.  

Quite contrary to today's world we all live in and the razzmatazz of it , we all find ourselves on the running turf - complaining something about , be it our financial constraints, deteriorating relationships or our falling health standards, we have many a subject to be grumpy about.

Having a calm look at the way people have started to go to temples and other religious places not to get peace of mind but to bribe the almighty. Others resort to astrologers and other boastful clairvoyant souls who just give you answers which you would like to listen. Man's quest to seek divinity and internal peace makes him go places from time immemorial. His quest to attain power, fame and riches have gone beyond varied proportions of insanity.

 Contrary to above, our parents are living divine souls and obliging their call for sure would nullify your seeking divinity outside. Many of us now have entered parenthood, and thus have realized the trials and tribulations which our elders must have gone through to give us initial pedestal to fly and explore various possibilities of world. till date many of them must have changed gears and have done the hat of Grandparents and take care of our children with the same attitude and vigor as we do. 

Taking them as living God's, if we start contemplating the truth with all of its purpose and we will get to know that sooner or later we shall be facing the same situation in fag end of our lives. How we partake this journey is the freedom given to us via  free will, results will astonish you in times to come!

 

~ A Nameless Friend...~

“No I don’t want it!” was a denial of an offer of guavas coming from a man who looked desperately hungry and frantically looking here and there for something to eat – How on earth was I seeing a man who was hungry but blatantly refusing my offer and was still pursuing his choice of food with almost no options! This intrigued me to observe him everyday whilst he used to roam around in the neighborhood park, though he was a new visitor who had made park as his daily stroll and a night shelter!

As I started to observe, he  roams around like a loafer in the park , his aimless walking’s made you think about his life- looking like a lost battle for him , may be – for sure he is passing his time as he lives each single day. He had no set plans for the day, he can surprise you by reading a leftover newspaper or any page that he lays his hands on. Sometimes I see him just looking at the sky as silently praying to the higher self for any demands that he might be putting forth.

His life is of intrigue to many who are constant visitors to the park , we greet each other whilst we do our daily rounds of jogging and brisk walking but now that we see him in the park without fail, up and sometimes exercising to make himself fit and live on the edge, I observe him that his previous life must have been of rigmarole and certainly he comes from an educated family background

Just the other day, as we were generally chit-chatting about issues the world is facing, we had an unexpected discusser – it was him, he was listened uninterruptedly as he spoke of key issues engrossing our current lifestyle. No wonder after listening to his valid arguments, we could now strongly believe that the man was an educated lot and that providence had played its game against him!

Though quite reluctantly, one of us asked him about his past life and started to enquire about his name. and his earlier whereabouts. Initially, he kept mum but as an impression, he had put on us he peevishly smiled and spoke “What is in a name?” – These ‘Great’ words were echoed by none other than the literary legend “Shakespeare” and thus spoken by this man with a sarcastic anger. What he had gone through which had led him live in this predicament was getting more of a surprise for all of us.

Since our last informal talks, the mysterious man just vanished and was not to be  seen for almost a week but on a sudden day , he re-appeared with no stubble and a clean shave, his hair nicely combed and to our utter surprise , he was wearing different set of clothes. None of us believed that here was the same man who just few days back appeared like a beggar to all of us and was constantly looking out and searching for things which none of us got to know!

Though, I always believed that he is no beggar but had much more truth behind his current existence, I seem to be right in a particular sense – the nameless fellow sat with us – though maintaining a dignified distance and started to ask about our well-being – definitely , he was in a mood to talk that day – we took this as an opportunity and replied back – keeping in mind the unknown sense of suspicion about him. Then suddenly, he started to tell his poignant tale which made us little skeptic about him.

He thus shared - He was working in a government job ( I excuse myself of mentioning the government company he was working for) but he fell into a dangerous trap of drugs which started off as a puff but consumed him till eternity – his wife and kids ( two daughters) left him for their own good and since then he had no one to stop him to getting into endless quagmire of drugs – till one day , he staked it all and was rendered homeless. He spewed his dark side with sense of regret and that now he has nothing left to himself apart from a small roadside shanty and some clothes which he interchangeably wears. His sad story kept us all voiceless and all we could do was to give him patient hearing.

We tried to enquire about his daughters and wife, but to which he kept silent. He didn’t want to tell us about them or so we believed that he was not in touch with them anymore. Then suddenly, he said “Namstey” and just started to move in his own world of thinking – we, sitting on the bench had got our food for thought and we started to think and comment about his life of misery.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back and voiced “Will you come tomorrow”, will share details about my family!” – to this, we all said “Yes!”. Its been a week that we are still waiting for our nameless friend and have also made a pact to help him in any way possible – but the guy has still kept us waiting, lets see till when though…!

~ Books, Friend for Lifetime… ~

Books become treasures of wisdom and you can learn so much from them. They can spear your thinking and actions – you learn so much form the world of books. You cannot meet everyone on this planet but can go through life histories of people who made themselves big with their attitude of living and the impediments they conquered.

Remember, many people in this world have suffered and overcame grave miseries with their power of thought and the commitment they made to themselves – They have all jotted their experiences into words,  an assembly of which you can call a “Book”

Internally, we all are spiritual being on a human journey to collect and face circumstances in this material world. Since time immemorial, humans have been recording their journey and life’s ups and downs in some form or other. In modern times, this practice has taken shape in forms of collective methodology of a library.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” – Rene Descartes.

Books can be our love of life; we can get so much to learn from interpreting them. My journey as a reader started from reading newspapers in the morning and have now become a rigorous habit of going through varied subjects of my interest. I never knew that of decades of reading, one day I would be filled with brim and would then start to put my thoughts in words and what I have learned from my best friend of a lifetime -Books!

Once speaking at Columbia University, the Oracle of Omaha and the Boss of Berkshire Hathaway – Mr. warren Buffet advised students to ‘Read 500 pages per day! as this is how knowledge builds up, like compound interest!” – The seems to be a true spirited saying from one of the foremost investors of 20-21^st Century who himself is an avid reader.

I always have been lookout for zillion words of wisdom, of human experiences and failures and again human victory, all typed or scribbled through human consciousness with a view to be listened , spoken out or read and which can then become a life lesson and not repeated in human history.

Great men of wisdom and valor have gone through many trying times , it is only when one gets to the podium of success, that one just notices him, but in the backdrop his mounted failures and efforts always goes unnoticed – it is this journey of trials that books put light on – it gives the know-how of how one struggled to reach the pinnacle of success  though we all forget the journey but only spot the limelight.

Books are an earnest expression of life lived with its ups and downs, some beautiful moments shared during one’s lifetime and also as a view of the person one is – whilst you get immersed in the sea of thoughts when you are going through a good book, you form a noticeable story with a situation that the protagonist might be going through. 

Books  gives you the ‘food for thought’ for your mind to chew on the information so receive and form its own stories – a parallel thinking thus develops which defines your character and interpretation of life’s situations – your mind becomes a storehouse of what you have read and it cleverly brings forth that very situation you fall in – you get the prudence to act and behave in a particular fashion to tackle the situation with confidence.

Finally, books shower you with everyday presence and make you smile, cry and day dream – you relate yourself to a particular situation whilst you go through a story and soon gets absorbed in it – that is what your ‘Best Friend’ can do whilst you sit alone and talk to him!

 

~Gaurav - The fallen ground…~

Life changes faces and today I can juxtapose this fact with an unexpected rendezvous as you may call it with my senior in school and seeing his predicament, I could just oblige to what life can do to any of us.

Gaurav , was his name as far I can remember its been almost two and half decades that we passed out but some intricate memoirs of our travelling in our school bus full of miscreants are vivid.

He was an obedient student and always a Mam’s favorite – the parameters at that time to qualify for such accomplishments was marks and obedience which I shamelessly didn’t bother to achieve. No wonder, he was also a sort of unspoken or tagged monitor of our school bus and had to report to any of the mischief which we as backbencher girls and boys created. Though at times, he would also fall in line and participate in moments of joy and chivalry, when it used to come to show-off in front of school damsels we used to see in awe not because of the beauty but knowledge and study types they were.

I still remember his English vernaculars whilst he used to address us in his authoritative voice (thanks to the backup of teachers on board the bus.)  and this created rift many a time and became the cause of small fights which broke out on the bus aisle. I could not find a single eligible reason to see him in dire state as I had seen him now!

Now that life shows its other side, I see Gaurav falling in the vicious circle of life’s dilemma’s, he was apparently looking depressed and had a shabby demeanor – with an unkempt looks, un-pressed T-shirt an unfashion tericot pant and local sports shoes (what we used to call gola boots in 80’s and 90’s dialects.)

The situation of life made him talk to his own self with utter murmur as he walked slowly engrossed in his own though process. I made myself convinced that next time he comes in front of me, we would certainly exchange pleasantries and start the talk by a simple ‘Hi”.

The moment finally came when we were going to hit head on and he was coming towards me oblivious to my presence, as he came near me and I felt I  could be audible to him , I said “Hi” but to my surprise  my friend gesture felt on deaf ears. He gave me a friendly glance but did not recognize me, though I tried to reminisce him our ‘Happy School Days’, could this be the time lapse or what depression or his health condition has done on him, I could not concede. All my efforts went in vain and gave me a feeling of sadness, what on earth I could do to help or assist him and put his life back on track. His attire was catchy in some respects as he was wearing a Rudraksh beads around his neck and donning almost a white beard – he looked well beyond his age.

Soon, he had passed by me as if nothing had happened but made sink deep into the agony of doing nothing – a man, a friend and a former school mate we used to think highly-off had been disgraced by life and fallen ground. Why life had treated him the way it did? And what sort of circumstances he had gone through or may be going through that he got himself bow down to life’s tribulations? May be I would never get to know his predicament, but the lesson today I learnt from living is that “ Life can turn tumultuous anytime , your situation can change despite your best of efforts and what is coming forth your way , you certainly don’t know!”

 It is this fear that made humanity believe in the power of ‘Unknown” for the man who though he knew it all, God does not exist!

Today, I just pray for my friend’s betterment and that he should cover his lost ground and start living normally , I don’t know his family’s situation or any help they might be pouring in for his getting back to life’s majestic self  but seeing him in thick and thin of living certainly makes you feel gloomy…

~ Hasijaji - Life of Prudence ~

Today I want to present before you a life story of a wonderful man – a septuagenarian who has seen it all in his life’s journey. With an established career and a family to boast of, he now passes much of his time in the neighborhood park , brisk walking and sometimes silently sitting and engrossed in his own world of thoughts and imagination whilst he reads his daily set of newspapers.

I met him during recent times and quickly formed a bond with him as we shared the same bench – the unexpected rendezvous turned out to be a general chitchat of the situation of our country, then progressed into asking about each other's personal details and family's wellbeing. The bond we shared quickly turned out to be of friendliness and the meetings started to happen quite often, almost everyday as the time overlapped.

One day whilst we were talking about life and its uncertainties , we started to share our personal situations and circumstances and what life begets for each of us – “Hasija-ji” as I call him now, shared me a parable about his life – he routed to his topic of marriage and having a family as I had enquired about his! He started that he has two kids and both are very well settled in their own personal life – they were self-attained personalities and had done Bachelors in Engineering from prestigious college of Delhi and made of choice of professional life all by themselves.

Internally, he was very proud of sharing the achievements of his two children and his eyes just lit up whilst he shared their stories but he had a sublime regret, which during the course of his storytelling he quite remorsefully shared with me – he was separated from his better half since more than two decades, as he termed this event as ‘Fault in our stars!” – he had a well educated wife working for a premier bank of India and after initial hiccups , she moved out of life of domesticity – she was confident enough to manage and up bring her two children and she did so with great alacrity – this was again a fact which Hasijaji shared with me as a matter of pride – quite obviously, he still loves his wife very much as I could gauge his tone and demeanor and misses her company. Man is a social animal and cant live without relationships, be whatsoever wealth of achievements one can boast of in his kitty, he has to partner with someone to spearhead this journey of life – especially when, once the kids gets into their own working life and get absorbed in their own family!

“Sanjeevji – Sometimes what you want from life does not happen and initially you regret the situation and start to comprehend and analyze the whole events to find the cause of such happenings, but after a thinking rigor , you have to believe in the power of providence, and you certainly cant ignore it whilst you live.”

I could related to his story with an empathetic feelings as I have almost passed my prime age of being called a youngster – I could gauge what he was talking about and the empirical of life which comes to forefront in everyone’s life.

The best part of him is that, though he is alone, he enjoys his life situations and makes it a point to be happy and does assorted activities – from medication to exercise and also the best part of his living is that “He is a stock market champ!” – here I wont give myself the liberty to exhaust it all but since last 3 decades Hasijaji has been an active stock mart investor and thus has got to know the pulse of market dynamism – though he is ever humble and versatile in his outlook.

We generally talk about varied subjects of life – from destiny to health, wealth and sometimes share our common feelings of spirituality and God – He is a well-travelled  man and one observation about him which captivated my eyes was that he is a voracious reader and carries 3-4 newspapers daily in his bag which he carries daily to the park.

Today, as I met him, we shared commonality about life and the best question we came across was “ What is the purpose of life?, I am 70+, all hale and hearty with good financial strength and no obligation whatsoever but still I ponder of my livability!”– pondering about this question, I had no satiating answer as this is the key question amongst many of us who one day would be free from our moral and societal duties and would sit ideally and wait for our time to end this beautiful journey of life – till then ,many amongst us would be in a state of spiritual quest and meddle over this “Question of a lifetime for which many researches and experiments are being done to know the being of our existence!

~ A Life Lost ~

The feeling of loss of someone makes you believe in the ephemeral nature of the world we call home. To know the subjectivity of life, start meeting strangers and try to nature a bond of effective communication with them and you shall get to know the inner trials and tribulations people are going through, though outwardly they seems to be happy and cheering.

Quite recently, I had the misfortune of losing a close aide who took his life as he was “bored of living”. He didn’t believe in making falsifying targets and achieving them till eternity and thereby getting frustrated for not achieving them. For him, his idea of life was “to live without any real expectations, be it family or friends -as everyone is tied up in his own myriad world of living – there are people who have expectations from you and vice-versa and not bowing down to these leads to other complexities in relationships. Many people are today expounding their dying relationships with loved ones – even if they were madly in love with them at one point of time. The fast-changing dynamics of living and people’s sky-high aspirations are major cause of such decay of life! “

Though he was not married and lived single, had master’s in mathematics with distinction and was a schoolteacher in one of Delhi’s prestigious school, he held his notion of life parallelly for himself. There was no economic pressure on him to earn as his parents had actually left a fortune for their only son in cash and in property, but he had no charm to exemplify his wealth and lived modestly. Something inside him had died much long ago, as he didn’t want to marry and stifle himself in vicious chain of a relationships.

So, was it loneliness which was making him cult into a life of depression and slump? or was his dying spirit which was the culprit and he could not see a world beyond his own limited imagination? The answer to these questions can open a pandora’s box for many of us who would be making their own statements of failure of his life. There would be zillion suggestions from many people who think they are successful in careers and in relationships, have a wonderful family and have enough wealth to beat their ego BUT deep inside their state of mind , they could gauge the failure of what they thought about life and how vulnerable they are regarding their achievements and perfect shape life is in as of today.

My friends case is an excellent example of such tribulation of changing times – he was raised as a normal middle class kid , with both earning parents in government jobs, with an above average home and no liability , we went on to become a teacher of repute but suddenly life took a you turn and he lost his interest in living! No amount of psychiatry and self-development could make him come out of notion of life and one day he called it quits!

Ideally thinking, what is the real target in the world for which we strive so much – we falsify our own character and image, we hardly listen to the voice of our soul and keep on portraying ourselves in an image we are certainly not – we wear a mask everyday to work fully knowing that we are befooling not ourselves but also our creator – he must have been laughing at us on such overturns of life! Lying down in the night expecting a sound sleep, we still have daredevil dreams of our next aspirations or behavior that we will portray for the next day, to the satisfaction of everyone – such is the life we have made out for ourselves – a caricature of a beautiful opportunity we have been given for creating a periodical memory of time!

Ideally speaking many of us might have achieved what we really not thought of – we got to a point of no return, people who speak of leaving their cushioned jobs and start to live a life with minimalism sometimes befools their own senses as it takes lot of courage and responsibility to track back and start living a life with minimal needs. Life is surreal happenings of unexpected events which might happen any time of your living and once happened, your image thoughts of life and its direction would change.

Today , as I jot down these words remembering my old pal with whom I have shared my childhood, all I can say is that be thankful for all the memories he gave me whilst he made me meet souls who have taught me much about living, though for now all I can say and pray to the higher self is “May his soul rest in peace and attainment!”

~ Silence of the Universe~

Sitting down the memory lane and noting the godly design happening in and around me, I was forced to think laterally as to who created all this landscape which I am seeing today! This universe has its own set of functioning though quite mutely.

There are unspoken sounds of silence which we don’t hear, the universe always talks to us whilst we are engrossed in our own sense of pride and achievement. There are no prejudices which nature or the universe makes whilst it showers itself with its abundance. Almost all the things vital for our existence comes in bounty and are just free… be it water , air or the warmth of the sun which made life happen on earth, there is absolutely no effort which is needed to make life happen, yet it does all this silently with neither having a bass or a tenor but exemplifying  it’s act or benevolence!

Why are we humans so full of pride and justifying our acts of little achievements, be it achieving a position or a power center in society – forgetting that one day all of this sham would be dissolved in the spirit of time.

Many of us get up in the morning and are repeating the same tasks on routine without a mindset of change, for us doing what is rudimentary task has an economic cost which we all have to adhere to whilst we live but nature has a different design, it changes, but with silence , observe the seasonal changes – spring, summer, monsoon all have its own magnificence, old leaves pave the way for new ones, new sprouting of flowers, fruits happen in its own hidden silence.

This universe is the best teacher – it teaches through its splendid design with all of its nobility without a payback, for it is forgiving humanity for its disrespect and thankless nature, though it fully knows how to keep its equivalence and maintain the order to keep the show running.

Its all happening around us, all we need is to connect and observe the ‘Change’ which happens every second, the silence of it is very subtle but audible through your inner self – though it has been proven now that all the vibrations in space and in the entire cosmos is making the sound of ‘Aum’ ! Let us sit and bask in its divinity and make our life more meaningful and achieve a purpose for which we are here for a specific time before we call it a day !

 

~ The Unlearned Musician ~

His Sound of flute was mesmerizing to the ears, the tone was much captivating and pulled one towards its source. As I was brisk walking, with each passing step, the sound was getting loud and more rhythmic …may be he was a professional player, the flute was just acting as a guinea pig to the player but the aura he was spreading unknowingly was godly!

Suddenly, the man came to my sight and I could locate him just cross the road standing in with hordes of flutes – some hanging along with a bag he was carrying. The flute was of different sizes and colors. Another observation I could record was that he was carrying loads of Peacock feathers which added to his kitty of sell – maybe he was a roaming market in himself – whatever he could carry with ease was there in his kitty! 

Out of curiosity and the versatility of the sounds he was making through that little log of wood with caricatured holes which made sounds of different pitch. I could never think of such a simple wooden piece can make such a melody, but here was a man standing in front of me making it happen! 

I went as a buyer to him and started to converse, though I wanted him to play endlessly but he suddenly stopped and asked me what I wanted – I just wanted to ask him if he could be a teacher or a guru to me to teach me this art but that was just an imagination. I thus asked him what was the cost of the “Bansuri” which he was so melodiously playing. He started to show me a range of flutes in his own marketing style, but I was just interested with the same flute he was playing himself , as if he had that magical wand which anyone could just have played without any practice.

 He told me the cost of flutes of different shapes and sizes and started to gesture the art of playing the humble instrument to one’s satisfaction. I enquired if he had learnt it from some guru or teacher, to which he replied that “I learnt all by myself. As a child, I would love to just play with this instrument as that was what my father could afford, he gave me the flute and I started to practice it daily. Initially, it was a disaster but later with time I learnt the art of making out different sounds at different pitches to everyone’s surprise, though I never knew that a time pass would one day become my source of income!”

His short parable was interesting and I could learn that, with no formal training of music , here was a man who was such a perfection incarnate to play the flute as if it was coming out of something divine!

No wonder we struck a deal, and I bought the merchandise without any much haggle – the honor of having it from a street hawker so versatile was all mine! Now also, sometimes I see him quite often playing the flute with all his character – the music is still divine and makes me know that the unlearned musician has come and make us all sink in his divinity of music…

 

~ On Women’s Day…~

 Today, I pen words owed to the women of world and as we see them in fast changing world of expectations and desires. The woman of today are an ideologue to emulate as she lives in a multifarious world, sometimes she is a mother , at others she is a wife, sometimes she becomes a daughter, at other she is a sister but in all her avatar’s she exemplifies the true spirit of life, of compassion and of all round care. Many of them are just living as a listless and are nameless in this world full of bias and indignity , a world which does not care about the remarkable sacrifices a woman makes whilst she  embraces her situation with no regrets – She is a champion in the house who we seldom revere , at others she is taken for granted but still she carries on with same level of commitment without any expectations, such is the mark of a woman!

At times, she lives in different shades of life, be it a working woman as our mother, sister or wife or she is a housewife without a salary and working tirelessly without an appraisal or an appreciation, but you wont find any less of an effort from these relationships as she is perfect example of Godly existence in our lives.

She is a fighter till the end, be it in the farms or in the countryside as a labourer juxtaposed with her husband toiling hard to earn the family income as well as caressing about her children side by side.

She is also the working maid, who gets up as dawn to work in the households as she takes the responsibility of her family and wants her children to be educated ones and not liker her. She is the power woman – a corporate honcho who reached on the pedestal of success and is now emulated by the sundry and made her way up the jealous male bastion, but she did it all…

She is also the tough soldier on the ground and conquering the sky as a fighter pilot and has proved her worth with zillion stories of valor and honor of protecting the country’s borders!

She is a definitive woman of today – a formidable being who does not beg for a chance to compete but competes with equal fervor and wins all her battles though sheer grit and toil of competency and equivalence. She is not a support seeker but a lady who earns her space with dignity and fight in this male bastion society…

More than 500 years back as GuruNanak ji once said “So Kyun Manda Akhiye, Jitt Jamme Rajan… means why call her inferior? from her, the Kings are born!

Guru Gobindji revered women and made her proud by adding ‘Kaur’ to her title, meaning Princess!!!

~ The Joker ...~

Many a time you will criss-cross people who you might not have observed but who are lessons in themselves, they define a far-reaching meaning about themselves and could be mirrors to your life situations. Just the other day I met a man dressed quite ‘inappropriately’ as according to many sane individuals around him – But his job or situation demanded him to be done the character of an unorthodox looking gentleman – “The Joker” as he was quite loudly shouted at by passers by , mainly kids, who were fascinated by his colorful dress and laugh like demeanor!

His appearance attracted almost everyone – with his continues smiles and provoking gestures, he seems to amuse almost everyone. Sometimes he used to make funny grimaces at others he felt a little sad – people were getting adequate entertainment, but this juxtaposed the situation which led him to behave the way he was!

Suddenly, I could relate our lives situations to what I saw and quietly observed – Here was a man who was there on the street dressed amusingly and making us all laugh through his wit but internally who on earth would have dressed like that and come to the fore of public life – making fun of himself whilst he made other people enjoy!

All I could think was about his predicament which led him to take up this unorthodox job! Could be that he is bound by situations of life to take this up, or may be the pressure of running a family or the responsibilities he has to justify – though he did his job with aplomb and devoted himself to the role he was playing. I thought “ We are also jokers in our lives , Isnt it ?, sanely thinking, if we observe ourselves, we could quite convincingly subject ourselves to the world and situations we live in – donning the hat of different relationships at different times - a father, mother, sister, brother and all sorts of roles during our lifetime – behaving  the way others want us to act!

Many of us are entwined in the responsibilities of relationships which has become the part and parcel of our living. We sometimes smile to make others laugh; we act to make others comfortable. We all are jokers without our dresses who are in the comic world called “Society” which has benchmarked our roles to perform on day to day basis. 

As Shakespeare once said “All the world is a stage…” so here we all are , performing in the circus of life with our ego’s, character, achievements on our sleeve  but with a purpose to entertain each other on this podium.

Just like the Joker, we are also clapped on or reprimanded on our day to day performances – we are judged by people’s insane expectations as we are always expected to make the others laugh be whatever we are going though internally!

Deeply immersed in the sea of thoughts, a sudden lough cheer broke my oblivion to realize that the ‘Act of the Joker’ was over and it was time to shun some money for his benevolence of making us laugh – though again this situation related to the ‘Act of life which we are now, would end one day’ and we would be a bygone memories for near and dear ones who themselves will done the hat of a “Joker’ to satiate the world of its expectations…finally, the stage of life would continue…

~ Life Confessions of a Medic... ~

 Today I write about a poignant talk that I recently had with an eminent personality. His belief in external world is beyond your imagination. Working as a cardiologist in a prominent Delhi hospital, he has seen it all – Instant deaths, life saving moments. Relative's and family members just falling on his feet to save a precious life, the times he has himself lost ground and thought he would not be able to save the patient from clutches of inevitable death. 

As per him, he had immense faith in the abilities of medical science to begin with, what he was taught at MAMC – Maulana Azad Medical College became a cult of his medical practice over the years. Dr Sharma is a septuagenarian who has been practicing Cardiology for three decades! Another feather in his cap has been unequivocal service to the downtrodden, there has been some miraculous cases in his life whereby he had called it quits but some eventful happenings made him believe that all that there is someone up there, some force who is controlling our life’s situation. 

“I have seen it all, the fist Death in front of my eyes made me cry! But it gave me a jolt to my knowledge and my teaching of medical science. The patient was faring well but suddenly in the night his condition deteriorated, and the final call came within seconds – no amount of resurrection was successful.!” Hearing these cantos from a successful medical practitioner is surprise to the ear – why on earth with so much years of practice and handling multifarious cases and complexities of bodies, here is a man talking of the “Unknown” , the “Other Force” who is surely thinks is in command of our destiny and day to day living on this planet. 

As the conversation takes shape, Dr Sharma talks of a case which made him believe in the existence of something intangible which is behind the working of this world. “A Patient in coma after a Cardiac attack once murmured – ‘They have come to take me and are laughing and calling my name!’” , this seems to be when the person was in deep coma and almost brain dead. In medical science this seems to be a case of hallucinations under the effect of heavy medicine’s but for the spirit soul this seems to be the ‘Connect’ with the other world. After some moments he again muttered “Go back ,Go back!” – this is what I have seen myself in the ICU of a hospital.” 

Dr Sharma’s belief is not purely a makeup story but a fact for him – his insistence of facts where death meets life cannot be taken for granted , for it is the fact which most of us generally observe in day to day or our living but are not ready to accept! No Wonder, when a MD Cardiology speaks of his life’s experiences, you need to give a patient hearing and form opinions about what all is there in this world, so much of which is not explored by ourselves! Finally, the conversation ends on note of gratitude to the higher self , which according to Dr Sharma commands and controls the working of this entirety called ‘Universe’ and we are a very subtle part of its existence but it is us who have to believe in this duality of living in materialism and thinking that it is us who are the doers of our situation and destiny , till then  let the benevolence of his presence fall on all of us to live in harmony and in perfect health and obey his commandments!

~ The Honour Of Wasting Time...~

 In the line of an ATM Queue, I get fragile with impatience of long lasting conversations with two gentlemen , one an Octogenarian and other in his middle age, discussing ‘Something of Importance’ to themselves.

The ‘Hurry’ inside me made me quite unaccustomed to as I had a timeline to match. Thinking to myself as to what these gentlemen might be discussion in all perpetuity, I was about to ask them to please hurry up their chores and thus free the ATM machine to make me do the transaction in quick earnest.

Don’t know what stopped me from doing so, I kept waiting and sulking. On a further look I saw that the ‘Problem’ statement was not the ATM machine but the ‘Card’ which was not being accepted by the machine. The wait thus goes longer and so does the temperature within me.

Suddenly with a thug , they ‘CLAP’ and catch my attention and I get to know that the much sought after transaction has just ‘Gone Through’ and the buzzling sound of the ATM is a sign that cash will just flow now. Seeing these two gentlemen, I reminisce that the two elderly gentlemen must be old friends and today unexpectedly the ATM counter has become a meeting place with a lot of coincidence involved.

After the ATM buzzle, the counting of notes thus begins, the ‘Old-Habit’ never dies as they say, this reminds me of the times when these oldies used to count every single rupee to their satisfaction and then leave the cash counter in any nationalized bank.

Coming back to the situational analysis I was in , the ATM door opens and both the gentlemen come out by supporting and balancing each other with a note of ‘Thanks’ towards providing a helping hand for a ‘Successful’ ATM transaction.

To my surprise both turn out to be ‘Strangers’ and in anonymity met with the coincidence of time. The sight turns tearful for my ego , as earlier thinking this to be a waste of time standing in Queue of an ATM and waiting for the Slow ‘Elderly Gentlemen’ to fasten up their transactions turn out to be lesson for life.

Be whatever, even if time is less, the ‘Helping hand of God’ shall always seek you wherever sought. Thinking of the middle aged man, who was repeatedly explaining the nitty-gritty of an ATM machine and its operational attributes, wearing his Office suit, he must have been getting late but still shows his patient side and sees to it that his elder partner is not left half way through the process of extracting money from the ATM Machine. The way they parted ways by greeting themselves off turns out to be a sight to remember.

If I were to sit and think if I had so much of patience to help in such a situation, I could endow myself with a difficult answer. Generations come and go but the values you have engrained from test of time and your family remains encapsulated in your genre and his would be the ‘KEY’ to your day to day performance in Life.

Lesson learnt, the situational analysis on each and every eyesight can be a learned lesson in your life.

Those ‘Ten Minutes’ of my learning would be along with me for a long time to come and thus keep me of remembrance of the situations one can be and the conduct one needs to endure to have successful and pleasing living...

~ Humans of Delhi...~

 Living a life in a metropolis brings you to a level of ample observations, people around you have been just in virtuosity but living a nameless life, a life full of deprivation and struggle.

The sheer gut of these people make you stumble upon the bottleneck’s life offered to them via their birth in poverty but their challenge to life has been enormous. One such soul I keep on meeting near vicinity is “Monu” a native from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur. He has a peculiar job which many of us might shun him to even talk to him, he is our market’s toilet cleaner.

Weather he likes his job or not was my obvious question I asked Monu the other day, his reticence was palpable by the nature of his work as I though he might not like doing what he is currently into, thus he spoke of some words which touched my heart, the words full of gratitude towards God for him being living in Delhi and earning and feeding his family though his handwork and not begging.

He told me that he came 2 decades ago as a child with his uncle after he had lost both of his parents to a freak accident in his native village. His uncle was a public car parking attendant and he took on himself to make sure that he is able to survive in this costly city. He did so but his conditions of deprivation does not let him go!

He astonished me by make me aware of his education qualifications – “I am a graduate Bhaiya !” – these lines pierced my inner being, Monu surely qualifies for a decent living but what he was upto speaks about the failure of our education system, our society has failed him totally!

For most of us, the dignity of work is what matters the most, here is Man I meet who did this with aplomb and whilst he does so, he quite explicitly keeps his self-respect at the same plinth. Monu has no big qualms about what life offered him, he is surely trying to make a silver lining out of his tough situation through a dignified living – as he proudly tell me “ Bhaiya, no work is big or small…I am batting on the pitch of life and waiting for one loose ball which I shall surely hit for a six!” – What a tremendous attitude this man carries under such depressive situation.

He has two kids who go to a nearby government school and his wife is a housemaid, together they earn much to fend for themselves. The best thing about Monu is his belief in destiny, as he says that God must have grandeur plans for him as if at all he didn’t had, he would have vanished from this existence long back! His gratitude towards the grand design is palpable with his zest for life!

Living a life full of self esteem and working towards his respectability, Monu gave me an exemplified teaching – Come what may , respect life in all of its elements – you never know what comes next, but whilst you do so, remember God’s oblivious presence, for you are being tested on his parameters of living!

~ The Park… ~

 A ground which confounded my existence with my growing up years now behaves the way I never thought it to be. Hours were spent playing all sorts of sports with goodness of friends and foes being those cricket and football matches – the fights and aberrations became the part and parcel of my adolescence.

 But off late, the Park has gained a new definition in my vocabulary of life, there is much to observe, live and dream about its presence around me – the thankless job it does to hordes of people coming to the fore for a simple stroll or an escapade of domestic life.

Today in these uncertain times, the Park has become our new dimension of living, with all sorts of souls avoiding the frenzy moments of homely living, Park is our sole refuge. With blossoming flowers and clear sky paddocks above, the place has an intriguing enigma. Brisk walks have become the norm of the day, I never thought of meeting beautiful people living close in my vicinity – souls brimming with wisdom of life, the die-hard octogenarians who have held formidable positions in government or private sectors but could not beat age and had to call it quits, though still they have not shunned the aura and respectability of positions they held.

On the other facet, I could see life in dilapidation, with no achievement, these lifeless souls occupy benches to time-pass their earthly sojourn and sometimes regret being born with not much luck or hope. Talking with them teaches me much about the dichotomy life offers, on one hand I see materialistic achievements and the boasting of same but on the other side of the aisle I see despondency and failure of life. On one hand I see kids full of confidence and playing their favorite sports, also I visualize toddlers just brought to a gentle stroll with their mothers – hoping for better future of their kids, there first footsteps outside the periphery of their homes. The Oxymoron of life continues as you would find the new and the old walking pass by each other looking with equal inquisition.

Of late with the pandemic taking its toll on the old, I sometimes hear the loss of someone gone without any signs of doing so, just the other day he was taking a stroll, but the life uncertainties took over him. Such vicissitudes of life – the park has seen it all, encapsulating the decree of pain and warmth of its regular inhabitants. Someone becomes a new member, someone losses his membership, the place sees quite a new visitor everyday and offers its meadows to captivating heights.

Park makes me meet both ends and continues to poke me with grim reminders of life – a life with all of its panorama it can offer. Today as I write this piece of thought, the park is all that is there with me, the fragrance of flowers, the buzzing of the winds , all that seems just majestic of what nature showers on you till the time you are here !