~ 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 !

~ The Art of Garbage Dumping ~

~ The Art of Garbage Dumping ~

Playfulness can be achieved anywhere and everywhere as it is dependent on your mental state not on how you look or act!
Sitting in my car in Dwarka, I could see a dump of garbage which was probably a collectible spot for everyday pickup. The Garbage dumpers were on their routine job and were busy disposing their collect in small formed pits. suddenly I visioned upon an might be looking at two irregular visitors,who probably were unknown of their being and that both were engrossed in their playful stance. Their biggest toy was the "Rickshaw" which one of them was steering with the other one pushing it hard to move forward. The combined effort had brought them there with their load of collectibles.

Now for them the fun began - they started to dupe the garbage in a playful way. First were the discarded types which they started using as javelin throw- with the thumb voice the tubes used to explode after attaining a trajectory of sorts.This image gave them the laughter of their life's and they started to laugh with their ear to ear smile.

No amount of money on this earth would make you achieve the happiness they had attained whilst they played in the Garbage dump! The second object of toy for the street urchins were the empty cardboard boxes which they started to jump on - the sight of ecstasy one could get while seeing this vision of entertainment was just out of one's being.

We have beautiful parks and grounds with lush green grass to play on but for these two friends it was playing on-the-job with whatever resources they could have attained and fine-tune them for their object of play. One of the life lesson learnt from that 15 minute of stoppage was worth ages - Every second of your life can be made playful , it is not the situation you are in but your mind and how it takes it....both these guys oblivious to the fact that they were being watch made me learn this...Bless them!!!!

~ Theology of Life ~

Everyone at some time in life wonders what happens after death. Throughout history, some of the most thoughtful minds have advocated that life does not end with the death of our body, but continues on via a process known as reincarnation. In the Western world, followers of the Orphic religion in ancient Greece were the first known exponents of reincarnation. They were succeeded by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and a host of other philosophers.

The Vedic literature of India advocates that the soul, or Atma, gives life to the body. Life does not arise from a particular combination of material elements as some modern scientists theorize. At the time of death, we leave one body and enter a new one. That is called reincarnation.

The concept is not as alien as it might seem. We can observe that we change from one body to another throughout our lifetime. Our body at birth is completely different from our adult body. Yet throughout these changes, the conscious self remains the same. Similarly, the conscious self remains the same at death and transfers from one body to the next in the cycle of reincarnation.

Our present body is the result of a long series of actions and reactions in previous lives. The law that governs this is known as karma: ~ Every action has a reaction~ Our previous actions have produced our present body, and our current actions will determine our next body.

Only in the human form can we free ourselves from the endless cycle of reincarnation, of birth and death, by re-establishing our eternal, loving relationship with Lord Krishna. As Krishna states in Bhagavad Gita 8.16, “From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one attains to My abode.. never takes birth again.”

~ Everyday Soul ~

In today's corporate jamboree one gets entangled with multitudes of shades, be it mirage of never ending targets or unattainable benchmarks of your bosses and peers!

Could there be someone whom you can rely on and talk on a different platitude knowingly fully well that he/she wont be taking advantage of the openness you bestow with good faith and honour? Can there be a friend you make in today's flinching competitiveness and erosion of morals and values to achieve the non achievable! you have to be truly honest to your own self whilst you dig into deep thoughts and figure out a genuine answer, though most of us would speak a politically correct answer would be the old school of thought. ..

There are souls you will find besides you who are good guides and are genuine in their introspection about you - they are observant about you - heart and soul, they know what could be the best for your living and existence....luckily we all have a few ~ for us they are above pride and prejudice with a common ground of your betterment.

It is you and only yourself who has to tread a different path whilst you try to recognize them amongst many who you generally meet everyday but cannot see with your inner self. With lots of discussions on varied topics, your "Everyday Man" - a soother is amongst you - try to find him and befriend him, for he is the God's angel amongst many who has been around you knowingly and unknowingly trying to make you happy and rebound with every fall... Surprise him with the gratitude that he never felt could be given to him & see for yourself the natural bond you make with your "Everyday Soul" - Start your search and feel the difference ...!!!

~ Man on a Slider ~

Passing through the busy road in Rajouri Garden - a naive West-Delhi Colony, I always am lookout for "My Man on the slider". It is in my personal interest that my prawning eyes are looking out for a distant meeting with him. His eclectic glance to myself brings me cheer and a ray of hope towards a futuristic life we all want to live. A hope, an expression of positivity i may call him, he is always effervescence in his gesture towards all and sundry. Always smiling and ready to break the verbal chord with any stranger who approaches him with a sense of magnanimity and respect. His condition would make you think and compare him to a roadside mendicant who has had a lost opportunity in life or life has been extra harsh on him. 

With no one beside his side night and day (doesn't love to talk about his family or where they are), he works upon his own self during the day – washing dishes or other daily wage work he lays his hand on road-side eateries Whilst you start to communicate with him, you will get to know that far beneath his dilapidated style of life, lives a far more enriched man with prudent life lessons learnt the harsh way. His only "Great" wish with the lord was if at all he had workable legs and he could have walked on earth - Early in childhood, he was diagnosed with polio and hence could not every walk straight on his own feet.

Further spending time with him made me believe on faith life has on our ability to challenge its discourses. His self-esteem and firm belief in living each day as it comes gives me teaching of life and how we should live it. Give him alms and he would take it sometimes with respect or at times shun them, depending upon his mood. For him talking to people, creating a repository of memory of those talks is much more important than accumulating alms and storing them in a secret roadside burrow!

What is the best take-away i get from him whenever I encounter him on my trips through his favorite road - "Bhaiya I have no qualms about living the way I am , the best I have got is my mental ability to be positive and live life with all my infirmities"... When my time comes to depart, I should be the happiest person vanishing from this time bound existence but not before touching the life of many who have lost all hope about the future of this amazing journey!"

Alas, here I find a man on his sliding wooden plank - all that he can say is his "Asset of a lifetime" and still living with brimming joy and hope about life - Kudos to this man of honor and dignity...!!!

What the Class Reunion taught me...!!!

What the Class Reunion taught me...

The Back-bencher became a famous doctor in a New York Hospital
The Studios sort became a homemaker.
The Sporty type became a fabulous painter
The Nerd doned the hat of a club level cricketer...
A Science student eventually became a Chartered Accountant.
An Arts student was a VP in a big IT house...
A Commerce student was a top Fashionista...
The Big-Bunker of the class was a top level businessman of the city...


That's Life,!!! With all its conundrums, it bestows its challenges and goodies in an appropriate fashion, it is us who don't condition ourselves to the spectacle of time.
No one would know what you are treading for...your journey is unique to your own self, give life a chance to populate its true nature. As the empirical of time unlocks, you will see the trails it leaves behind with a sense of thoughtfulness!!!

~ Kanwar Uncle - A Pedagogy of Life ~

His long lasting presence around our vicinity did not had a visible effect on me until I realized his feeble walk around our home.

As our conversation broke, we started to confide in our talks about life and its living. I could well decipher that Kanwar uncle (As we know him) had live a life well enriched in its all possibilities. Be it ups and downs, he has been a constant worker all around his life as we have seen him. Living a retired life since two decades, he has been generally hale and hearty with all his domestic commitments post his retirement.

Uncle " What do you think of life as you have lived and what has been your deepest regret out of it?" was my quick question as I met him in our neighborhood park. His thought able reply was " I have no regrets from the Almighty!, he has been so kind to me in his bestowing of all his goodies. All through my life, I have had praises of him and thank him for giving me this opportunity to live an able bodied person at this fag end of my life!". These words expounded a ray of ultimate home and ecstasy in my thinking about what we would be life when we hit upon his age - though considering the kind of life we are leading now a days, It would be quite easy to comprehend if we will ever be able to hit upon this age!

As the conversation further develops he gives his mark of advice " Khush reha karo -  sab achcha hoega, Eh Life teh istraan hi chalegi, kadi upar teh kaddi neeche!" I took this adage of prudence to my subconscious mind and thank him for sharing his thought provoking gesture. I have always believed to talk to elders with all of magnanimity and humbleness as they are the living gods who have lived life with all of their vital experiences and conjectures - the ups and downs of life must have been grilling and how they have defied everything during their journey and still have maintained the positivity of it.

Considering extreme steps nowadays which highly aspirational people take, living with gratitude and thankfulness is all it takes to live life in all its melody.

Many of us have such living personalities around us who are filled till the brim of knowledge and enriching experiences of life, we tend to ignore them of their ways and thinking dispositions, we dont like talking to them and afford to spend our precious time with them. But as time seepage's , you will find yourself sitting on the same melodrama of life waiting for someone to talk to them and spend un-forgetful moments with them.

Thanks Kanwar uncle, today as I write this i see you go pass my home and truly revere your thoughts whilst I start living life in a different perspective.

~ Man with the Silence of Body ~~

The man had an eloquent silence besides his persona. He was travelling with sense of stagnation of body and mind and with a scene not many of us like to be in, not at this time of our life.

As of now, whilst I drive towards my unending destination , the hearse van makes its way towards the cemetery for his final rites, I just reminisce the life the “Unknown Man” must have lived and leaves behind a voluminous part of his thoughts and experiences he had shared with his loving family.

His family members had done the religious chores of what were expected out of them. As he laid in his own world of silence and tranquility, all sorts of people who were looking towards him held him in high esteem. With round of praises as he was raised over a ground to be set to flames, the thought provoking moment was all set for us to reminisce his past!

The man was none other than a body on the pyre to be consigned to the finality of life. The “Agni” tatva which will vanish his body away and only the bones would be the resultant !
With thoughts living besides what all would be left, the final journey as Bhagwat Gita entails would be taken alone, no family, no friends and acquaintances, the hard but true fact of life would come in everyone’s lifetime. As time would have it, the anonymity of the “Man” was no cause of concern to everyone who saw him go in the hearse van, the folding of  hands lead them believe in the presence of harsh truth one has to face , now it is not the moment for the alive, but one day it would certainly be!

The pyre is the last and final wish from the physical world one can have whilst he is alive, what happens next is all talk of various religions and faith. Though the belief in the fact that the Man would again be brought back to life, though in different world and physical form cannot be simply rejected.

The magnanimity of life is all it is – live at the moment of joy and thankfulness , be so, as time is the beauty which shall slip your life away one day and the next folding hands would be for you in all praise of what you did the whole of it!

~ A watchful Eye~

Sitting at a composure, the anonymity of his eyes was befalling the spectacle of the ordinary world as he saw. He was as maimed in his stance as one has fulfilled his worldly life and is now ready to depart. His sole backrest was a metro pillar and his cushion was a gifted pillow. He qualified to be a mendicant but he was not! When inquired about his worldly name and title, he juxtaposed the two and replied "Ravi" and he was once a small time road peddler. Now that he is of no use to the society - as per his evaluation of himself, he chose to time-pass the last legacy of his life. A thoughtful prudence led us to believe that he was a an educated lot which made him stand alone from rest of the types in his vicinity. The cruel justice of time made him the man he was today. Having a wife and two kids was all he showered his love on, but an unfortunate event stole it all away.

He still believes in the tapestry of destiny as he himself has been been a prime witness to the same. Observing the rush hour without a blink of eyes, he judges the drama of life and the running around on the roads. His last call at humanity makes us believe the wisdom he has acquired whilst he led a depthful life. "Everything is prematurely destined, you are all puppets of circumstances and events of time, let the time unfold its character, you shall have to wait and see what happens to you!" Alas, the man with such wisdom is negated by society as materialism is what is weighted in a man's character.

For me, he is a living persona of life lived with judgement and prudence of thoughts and actions.