~ Not a Covidiot ~

No, I was no Covidiot, I took every precaution which I could have taken – considering my old mother and kids in the house, but as they say it is a cat and mouse game. Almost everyone of us would have to pass through this grill of life at one point of time.

Covid didn’t come to me as a great surprise or a Eureka moment to be nice about – the toughest part of tacking this invisible pathogen entering your body can give you a nightmare if you start looking for statistics which every newspaper showered around as their prime time editorial. On second thoughts, it just turned out to be a common flu, which had to be aggressively tackled and checked with proper diet, medical consultation which many didn’t go for and still don’t.

A tiring aspect of getting friendly with the disease is the loneliness one must tackle whilst one gets infected, the stigmatization of one’s character and the regimen you need to maintain to get over it!

In my entire life, I could not thank much to the power of technology which made me pass this phase of aloofness from the world – be it my pet mobile phone or the power of the internet, I didn’t feel much distress or a sense of seclusion whilst I started to count my days of my infection. Quite intuitively, I started to love myself and my existence and the belief in GOD getting to its subjectivity. There were zillion of things that you want to do before you leave this world, so the run began to work myself up towards a list of things which I loved to do whilst I am in flesh and blood – once the list was done, the process thus began… 

Sustaining  a healthy regimen and motivating oneself for tasks which you were contemplating since ages is a tough challenge, you need high spirits to rejuvenate your energies and reach a mental stature to be doing them everyday without fail – Covid gave me that brilliant opportunity – our rigmarole of daily hush hush living will never be giving you the opportunity to work towards your own self – what you always wanted to do , may be if you want to just sit idle and look at the sky mesmerizing in your own thoughts – the “No Time” glitch will always objectify your mind and the sprint of time will entice to that endless chase.

Another “Beautiful” aftermath of “Covidofied” ( a term which I made for my situation ) came out to be your love for your family and friends. The ALL “taken for granted” souls that we have around us suddenly seem to be a distant past – a glance of thoughts passes by your mind sometimes, what if you are no more, where will you go , you will have to leave them if situation demands so – considering that you are at HIS mercy all along as there is no drug to treat your worsening situation and all the treatment is symptomatic. The situation can turn tables, what if you lose your near and dear ones to such a frivolous flu – which we had never expected coming! Life changes its dimensions and you start to realize the gift of relations and time.

Penultimately, all I experienced during my living a life of solitude was that start living with depth of every moment. Realize that we all are here for a definitive time, our relations, friends and even foes are there for us on a limited timescale. Once gone, we will never meet in same situations we are – though I am a strong proponent of life after life and that we shall come back to realize our Karma’s. Start loving your situation be how much distressful it may be, time will heal, no one lives perennially, do things what you have been postponing till now, make the silliest of mistakes, laugh on yourself , help people around your, love animals - be it an insect – you have no right to take life which you have not given. Everyone is here for a purpose and proving his worth in this beautiful world … till then happy living!

~ Anna & his Life’s Sumptuous Feat ~

The roadside economy in Delhi marts are a delight to watch – the sparkling lights and the melodramatic vista it offers is food for various thoughts. Not to forget the different characters of people you ought to meet – you get to know their journey of life, their predicaments and various struggles and situations they have passed through and have reached in front of you as you see them.

Life is demanding for everyone and they are not special cases. I came across one such soul – “Anna” he likes to call himself and is proud of his name and lineage, he is our roadside ‘South-Indian’ shop which caters to various people through its varied degree of mouth-watering South Indian dishes.

In his early 50’s, Anna came as a lad of 12 years in Delhi along with his family – all of four people. His parents were moderately educated, and his sister was too young to go to school at that time. Hailing from Tamil Nadu’s remotest of the villages, his father set-up a roadside stall – just a table and a bench for people to sit and started his ‘Entrepreneurial’ journey as the term is considered fag in today’s world of aristocratic English!

For them, it was the dire need to bring food on the table for the family which led his father to take this plunge out of his mediocre savings. Anna tells me that he has continued the ‘Legacy’ of his father in all pristine mode and made this stall as a passion for a lifetime. “It is always an honor to uplift the gifts your parents bestow on you howsoever insignificant as it may look.” – That is the philosophy of life Anna follows. In the midst of passing years, he has established himself as a road-side eatery of repute, he swears by the quality of his Idli’s and Dosa’s and mouth-watering Sambhar which he himself cooks – once in the morning and once in the evening.

He takes this as a responsibility to present before his customers the legacy of his father – who started this shop when Anna was too small to help him. Anna ponders – “My father used to work for 12-14 hours a day to make ends meet, be it sun, rain or cold, he was adamant to stand under the makeshift umbrella and wait for customers. In those times, there were not much roadside stalls, neither were there many customers!”  

Though his Icon is no more, but the keystroke life lessons bestowed by him has been well entrenched in Anna’s philosophy of dialing living, the same has been passed on to his kids.

The tough times have seem to vanish and Anna is all praise for the Almighty for his much mercy, now that he gets many customers that on some days, his stall is inundated with long list of requests. His both kids are doing jobs in reputed MNC’s – a fact that he is proud of and his eyes lit up when he tells all of his story to his chatting customers.

A killing advise which Anna always tells us all “Times always change, I have seen this in my own life, One should always be humble and be obligated to the power of unknown.”

Well, Anna is not much educated and lack many of the IT skills which we all flash but his wisdom is much ahead of the bookish knowledge we all possess – no wonder we are entrapped in varied degree of issues in our lives, with many of us chasing a chimera of false aspirations and a dreamy success and lack internal contentment!

We will see many such Anna’s struggling to make ends meet, but they surely lack the grit and gumption to sail through vagaries of life with their own commitment and philosophy of life – time tells us that they have the real success mantra of life – “Patience” and “True belief in self and the almighty”, rest follows…

~ Message from Masters ~

 Listen to the attributes of the Grand Design, in the cacophony of everyday living, take out time and start to observe the everyday blessings, believe me, you will be astonished on the minutest benevolence of the almighty. You have taken for granted every iota of your breath and have assumed it to be the edifice of casual living – not its certainly is NOT.

Remember your act of living and your existence in its timely resilience is engrossed in its own time-boundedness and it certainly is not ever lasting.

Quite often you must be hearing the eerie noise of ambulance passing by or whilst you open your system and tread through most happening news, you get to know the gravity of the dance of death.

Obey to the messages from higher-up, be whatever power you may call it, It’s certainly is there!!!

Know it to believe in its power of happening. What this time is teaching all of us – “Gratitude” is the only powerful world which rakes a bell in my mind. Be honorable to the never-ending power of the unknown mystifying in varied sense of its existence. Lately, you have started to live quite casually, defying all norms of virtuous living and have taken back the rules of the living-game. 

You have stopped pondering over the various goodies’ nature has bestowed on you, prime being the your “Good Health” which keeps you going through your daily chores. What made you think in this world that you have turned immortal? Is it that you have not been kissed with the tangent of death? For any counter measure, look around, you will be able to gauge the complexities of life around.

Be it air, water or our everyday thoughts, you have corrupted it all. This is not been taken good by the consciousness of this world and we see the world today as it has turned out to be . The ignominy of daily living  involved has cast a shadow on our everlasting existence. The aftermath's are apparent - the current chaos of universe is to be seen with a conscious thought provoking.

To overcome this time and its uncertainly, we need to exemplify our praise to the almighty , seek pardon and obey to his idea of world, rather we do the other way round and thus have to suffer the consequences of our defeat and suffer for our own wrong doings. Till then, let the world know that it is time to act with out prejudice, prestige and self-aggrandizing ego, for you are mortal being and can be asked to leave any day and anytime.

~ The Lost Shoe ~

 Just the other day, whilst walking on the trails of time, I came across a ‘Single Shoe’ which was inadvertently left behind by an unknown Gentleman – don’t know who he was though, the shoe’s other partner has just vanished.

At a desolate spot, the shoe tells us about a lastly inquisition about the wearer – who he was and what made him or her leave him behind. Estranged from the pair, the shoe is in a perfect shape and is in a wearable condition – lot of mendicants and street wanderers wear such shoes as a bargain by the philanthropic types!

The size when gauged perfected with my match – the color didn’t! As the thought grew more fervent, I started to think much about the gentleman and what might have led him to leave behind one shoe which was in perfect order and ordained to accomplish its life with that of its owner.

The answers to all of my questions were kept resting when I see a sleek old man comes gushingly towards me and enquires about the lost shoe which quite embarrassingly trying to match with one of mine – the perfect shot was thus accomplished in a whisker. 

The conversation led me to belief that the gentleman was in fact doing an exercise rigor whilst he had kept the single shoe intentionally as a marking for his running sprint! All my whims and fancies and a thoughtful parlance was laid to rest – Thus the story ended with a gentle talk of well wishing each other with a belief to myself that next time if one sees a secluded shoe in perfect shape, start looking for the rightful owner nearby and not act as inquisitive as one could be else you could find yourself to be in a life of hilarity !

~ Mahesh Uncle & a Tea Cuppa ~

 Sitting on a Tea-Stall, I see a frail looking gentleman adjusting his bicycle on the roadside pavement and taking out some paper teacups and handing over them to a tea-vendor. Many of us would not imagine working at this age of our lives but what test of time exemplifies defies all logic.

He has having a phenomenal strength at his age of life and paddles through the streets of Delhi for about 20 to 30 kms per day. His ‘Sell’ is paper cups and glasses which he sells to street vendors and roadside hawkers.

Mahesh Uncle has had a beautiful past as he describes when I started to converse to him – A Teetotaler that I am, I met him by chance as I was whisking a tea-cuppa with great cherish. He was parking his vehicle – a bicycle which he proudly tells us that he bought with his own ‘hard earned’ money.

Reminiscing his past with great encouragement, he tells us that he was a government employee and was working as a lower divisional clerk at Government of India Press. He has had a great life with a good family – which comprises of two sons and his wife for 38 years now. He lovingly call her “Lakshmi”. On further prodding as to why he is working at this fragile age of his life, he should be sitting at home and enjoying the benefits of retirement, he grows morose suddenly and starts to become sarcastic in nature.

Quite poignantly he tells us that he has started to call him a big failure in life as he was not able to convince his two sons to be with him at this fag end of his life. Both of his sons were educated with much hardships ( being a single earning member of a family of four) and they were made to do professional courses with his hard earned money – both of his ‘Competent’ sons ( as he still proudly talks about them) have left him for a comfortable and chasing life-dreams. He stays in his two room Janta flat in Delhi and for them, his dwelling was short of a curated life. This came as a shocker to him and his wife and they were suddenly left to fend for themselves at this dark hour of life. With meagre savings left, he has no option to work now and bring food on the table every day. The story still lingers on the fact that though his sons send some money back home, but still the craving of love and attachment towards their only hope of old age have left them for a mirage of life.

Thoroughly sipping his tea-cuppa he abruptly utters “Beta, Its by God’s grace that I am hale and hearty and ticking at this age of my life. God is certainly kind! My only tension is about my wife, what will happen when I am no more in this world?” His so called “Knowns’ have left him for good, for a better proposition(s) and a good life not believing in the fact that what they are living is ‘GOLD’,

He is happy that at this age he has a companion – His wife, who is hale and hearty too and is living with him, though with meagre means and always thankful to God.

Mahesh uncle, quickly puts his cup down as he finishes his Tea and after collecting daily money from the Tea-vendor, seats himself on his bicycle only to paddle away to his next destination – a probable tea-vendor may be 2-3 kms away only to tell as story of fortitude and despair which he never though he would see in his life whilst he worked hard to give his sons a better future!

~ Your Test of Time…~

 Can a Street mendicant who is just a toddler ask for alms which he so much desirous of?

He has listened the scarcity of the same through his mother who keeps on hankering about the ‘Not-Haves’ to run the show of life and livelihood, or can he be a trained street urchin making passersby emotional and asking for alms which he can splurge on whilst his mother and father do just nothing and sit on the pavement – his father, a drunkard lives life in a splurge and sees people running around as fools to chase the velocity of life!

Your test of time is defined by the occurrence of events which may happen in your daily living – some insect, or a bird or a human being , or an animal like Cow, Dog comes to you with a set of expectations – primarily for food for life and your conduct determines the true angel or devil which resides inside you.

Remember – you will be eagle-eye watched in rapt attention by Him, how you conduct yourself is what is coming your way.

As I take breaks and tread the streets of Delhi , I have come across zillion souls who are so much wandering around you – oblivion to facts and fiction of life , what it is for literate people sitting in front of laptops in cool A/c cucumbers and speaking and acting like demigods to these unfortunate souls. They see you with expectations and try to emulate themselves to what you are doing in life.

The two kids who regularly frequent around my office – and who are my friends for life now are my happiness musketeers. They talk to me in a differential tone, without any expectations – we have started to share the bond of togetherness whilst we have a tea-cuppa every day in the afternoon. I generally ask them about their school and their parentage, to which they answer in sublime manner – the girl name is Ishika and she hasn’t yet enrolled for school whilst her younger brother (Vansh) is a grade-II student in a nearby Government primary school, though he hates getting up in morning and going to school.

Both have a thing in common which mesmerizes me – Their Smile! – They are happy go lucky souls, living under tutelage of HIS mercy – with no fear of Corona or any other vector born disease we are so dreadful of! Isn't it just sheer coincidence that these tiny tots are hale and hearty and are actual life learners and their real school been the streets and pavements of Delhi where they live and loiter around!

They certainly are a far contrast to what life offers us – though we don’t cherish its magnanimity .

They are the ones who make me ecstatic of everyday living – of what life’s aim should be for all of us whilst we finish each day and approach the day of our ‘Last Supper’.

I end up writing this piece of my experience with words of wisdom as we all live life in awareness…

रहिमन यही संसार मे, सब सो मिलिए धाई | ना जाने केहि रूपमे, नारायण मिल जाई || 

~ Life Sometimes... ~

He came to sell pens, but he took my heart away!

Sans shoes or slippers, his small feet was an immediate sight to be noticed with disillusionment. His innocent smile is contagious and pure from his heart. He is untouched of the societal infirmities. A pure soul as I would love to call him. His dilapidated condition is a synonymous to the conditions he is living in, but his genteel smile and long-lasting purity of soul is mesmerizing.

He comes to me and just stood still, at this delicate age where we as toddlers were cocooned by our mothers, life has to offer him other scenarios. Though quite oblivious to what he is marketing a certain irony is being cooked around his destiny. The object he is selling will never be his true warrior in life - A "Pen", it could have made him topple his situation if his life allowed so. Now that he has been born under precarious circumstances, the toddler with his broken milk tooth and shabbily dressed aura has been designated to become an early life salesman. He will go through the grill of everyday hardships to fend for himself and be able to bring food to the table, many a day’s sleeping empty stomach. Oh, life what begets of you! Why have you done what you have done. 

For many of us when we were kids, our parents did the best they could have done to bring us to a level we all are today. They knew the perils of failure and what does living a failed life meant. They had the means to atone us different hats and live upto their expectations of living a grandeur of life. Now the situation is overturned, a soul seen with a contrast of nature where filling his belly and survival of the day is his main task, leave alone living in luxury, which is the dreams of his dreams

Deep diving into the situation, I ponder upon our laws of karmic existence, what is the true cause and effect of what you do and what you become. This can be a complacent justification to your heart when you habitually see such souls around you but here the test becomes, a test of time and your destiny. What behaviours you show and present before them tells your true nature of existence.

As they say "What is the use of sacrifice and philanthropy, if you start talking about it!", you do your bit in tandem of time and move on - pray to almighty to be able to give him courage of existence and improving upon his life from where he finds himself today. Miracles do happen, that is the beauty of life, are well not living in a miraculous way? Have we not taken life on a casual note? what have we done to earn such a body, mind and spirit and in such comfortable situation we are in today!

Not everyone is so fortunate to live a life of shine as we do - of course we need to reciprocate such endowment to our creator or destiny - Be agile and humble to bow down to his call, you can be devastated by any situation which he wills.

Today, a situation becomes a prelude to my thinking, a times script of nature which gives you hint to test yourself at this hour. You make him smile instantaneously by presenting him his most wanted need of the hour, the icing on the cake also happens as you spear him with a sanitizer and he asks, "here too!" as he outreaches his hand.

You say a final goodbye to him, and he is never to be found again, as he gets lost in time seeking an aimless dream, a mirage of a better living. You are left behold, with a praise towards the sky and praying for his betterment, a better future should befall on this nameless soul, a wanderer who has outcast your conscience with a differential thinking.... As I write past midnight, I truly thank God for his mischievous best, to give me a glimpse of what life can be!

“Subhash” – an attempt to un-‘FOIL’ life !

 “He is alive” – this is the first thought that came to my mind whilst I saw Him after almost a sabbatical of six months – His demeanor was a mesmerizing as it was earlier, and he was at his talkative best. He spotted me in the weekly mart and called me “Bhaiya, how are you?, All well at home?” . I relied in the same tone and enquired about his whereabouts since the lockdown happened.

He told his sordid story with a smiling glance – his passion for living life with smile all the time has been his uniqueness, that is what has attracted me in his character. I have known ‘Subhashji” since decade now and he has not changed a bit, though the fragilities of body has started to appear on his persona. His hair have become salt and pepper so has his moustache, but looking at him, he has continued to empress his customers with his marketing skills and the mix and match products he sells on his movable trolley!

Meeting after so many days, he has still not changed his business preposition and he continues to sell tissue papers or foil papers of all shapes and sizes, his insistence to passers-by to buy his sell is always on an encouraging note. He cracks jokes according to situations and quite enthusiastically compares his products with that of what is being sold in regular shops – though having bought his sell earlier, I have been a thorough acknowledger of this fact that his products are of equal footage, if not inferior in quality – not to forget that they are priced far below the retail price of malls and regular shops.

Subhashji has been conscientiously living in these tough times with his family – consisting of two young boys and his wife. One of his son is studying in class 12 and is attempting his board exams; the other one is in class 7^th, his only worry is , though his elder son is study-focused but lack of laptop or a high end mobile phone has become an impediment in his studies and he has to skip some of his online classes for lack of continues source of internet. He knows how important it is to make his kids educated as he himself is a school dropout, though his story of doing so is completely different of his times.

Nowadays I see him moving through the by lanes of service lanes and overstretches his working hours – the reason for this conduct is quite obvious. The trial and tribulations of destiny has made him outreach his earning acumen and he has to work overtime to make ends meet.

“There are few customers now a days Bhaiya – they don’t buy street products out of fear of corona – though I have kept sanitizer in my cart but its is tough to convince them, it is only my dedicated customers who buy from me!” – I can well understand his predicament and had full sympathy with him whilst he retorted to my prodding of his business condition.

The time came and we exchanged formal goodbyes to meet again hale and hearty, not before obeying to his clarion call to shop from his cart, for me it has always been an honor to do so as it is not his genteel smile that makes your day but the effort and the strong vision he has for his life and his growing children.

~ Destiny of Gods ~

Passing through the streets of Delhi, one can have a careful glance trough the boundary walls of a park or a temple and you can surely find yourself witnessing dilapidated statues of Gods and Goddess nicely placed on the wall plinth. For most, these are the same statues which were revered in homes when they were in all finesse but now that they have somehow got ruptured, broken or have got cracked that they have been placed at their current statures.

I was able to witness one such site whilst I was trotting the not so narrow lanes of a mart – these revealing pieces of art were all lined up out of reverence or may be guilt of the owners. They were all having one deformity or other; some of them were having broken hands for others paint were worn off and the shape and beauty of the deity had thus got disoriented and as according to the passersby , they had severely lost their sheen to be bowed down out of fear or a guilt of purpose!

These abandoned statues now are at the liberty of nature and are thus prone to incessant rains and scorching heat of Delhi summers and are sure to get the ruptured with the passage of time.

Out of reverence or out of fear, these small idols of various divinities are not dismantled completely and rather as placed ‘reverentially’ on a secluded and safe place. Formidable time certainties take over from there and after some clicking months and even year’s, to our dismay, we can see the gradual decay of these iconic symbols of one’s religion.

In current times as I see them, they are just been placed and look in good shape, many passersby bow down whilst they pass through them – don’t know if the respect they present is out of fear or reverence – another sought after question for me to be judgmental about. Same this holds good for many of us who pass through any place of worship – be it a Temple, Gurudwara or a Masjid.

Another awful reason for people to secretly place these icons on the roadside walls can be attributed to the fact that many of pedestrian’s address nature’s call in an open and clandestine grounds – the best way to stop them doing so is to place these icons.

It is such an oxymoronic truth that those gods or powers we owe are existence, we don’t shy away to place them on different pedestal to their own satisfaction. For the more prudent ones, some take the extra step of making these idols submerged in a nearby river or flowing waterbody – just as we all take pride when we do a ‘Ganpathi Visarjan’ or ‘Durga Visarjaan’.

The destiny of these idols is defined from the very first day when they take shape; where they would be dismantled and will loose ground is just a matter of time; in the middle, they become our power structures of our domesticated temples and are vociferously prayed for our selfish interests – I wonder what happens to their powers when they loose their shine and are thus gets matured in the eyes of the same set of worshippers who once bought them home to have a lasting semblance with them while they put forth their best desires to be heard on the other side of existence – Till date this remains a far reaching enigma to me and may be to many such pedestrians who pass by and glance through these once decorated idols of worship but now have become roadside gods!

~ Rohit - A Standing Ovation ~

 Standing in rapt attention for endless hours, he prides himself to be the only vocal salesperson his employer can accommodate – though he is lucky to have been employed at this fragile hour of crisis.

His job is to stand at a particular point with a placard in hand demonstrating his marketing skills, though he exemplifies as a static lamppost. I have been seeing him on my way to office for quite some time now, though his posture sometimes changes and so does his dress, but the placard and the umbrella he so famously embellishes remain as an Einstein’s constant. A certitude in his characteristic glance enamor your conscience to speak to him which I did whilst I took the liberty to steer my car towards the “Arrow” which is displays all the time. He is a salesman to a local clothes vendor in a Delhi mart – The clothes range from all sorts of Ladies, gents and children wear – be it jeans, trousers, ladies’ tees etc., all are fixed priced with no haggling scope for the approaching customer.

Last Sunday, we took the liberty to approach the famous “Rs 500” shop as marketed by this gentleman – before I entered the lane, I asked him his name – the reply came as “Rohit”. As I parked my car, he soon turned out to be a valet parker, assisting me to place my car in a comfortable parking space informally reserved for his customers. Before I could thank him for his gesture, I saw him quickly going back and standing at the same point as he always does, probably he didn’t want any opportunity to be missed to attract his prospective customers which pass by

Let me make you aware that Rohit stands almost on the main road pedestal and showcases his visibility to all passersby. I have seen him inching towards the main road whilst he see herd of cars approaching by – his key marketing skill which he has so famously acquired whilst he learnt this trick standing on the road for endless hours!

After shopping for some wannabe clothes, I asked his employer who was at helm of affairs at the billing desk as to why Rohit is being asked to position himself almost punishingly on the road, come what may; the answer was that he has self-prophesied this no frills marketing strategy and it has been no compulsion for him to be harsh to himself – instead he joined as a salesman in the shop but seeing low customer turnout, he leaped into the idea of caricaturing himself as a visible sales lamppost to attract passersby – He intrigued this idea whilst he observed that this shop was towards the interior of the market and it would be pound foolish to be sitting and waiting for the customer footfall and believe me, according to his employer, his decision is paying dividends as he has some very good customer handling skills he attracts customers with his famously jotted one liners – also he converts himself to valet parking assistant and also comes inside of shop whilst he see’s that there are lot of customers who are being left unattended!

The silver lining to this marketing strategy came out when I got to know that Rohit was almost illiterate and was a son of a roadside sweeper who happened to pass away few years back not before introducing his son to the Shopkeeper for employment. As according to Rohit’s father, he did studied till class 6^th before he was forced to quit studies citing family’s economic turbulence!

Hearing about Rohit’s story, I started to revere him as a true gentleman who inspite of his hard existence has been a source of inspiration to many – he is still optimistic and positive about life and is using his full acumen to be of use to his employer at this time of crisis.

As we came out of the “Rs 500 Shop” – I said Adieu to the budding marketing genius and internally prophesized that one day he becomes an owner of such a shop, and I be his everlasting customer. Till then, I would be complacent to see him regularly with his everyday penchant – an umbrella and a Placard; two famous visibilities defining his job roles!!!

~ Ravi – What I will miss ~

“Never ever be afraid of the tumultuous nature of your living and life. Have faith in what it bestows on you. You are here as a part of the grand design of nature, and soon with your conscientious living you shall see to it what the purpose was! “ – These are words pouring out of a middle aged man “ Ravi” who has been a constant source of inspiration and guilt – Yes “guilt”, because we have been partners in crime for a common purpose during our grown up years. We used to be next door neighbors and were almost in the same age group. Our commonality in living our life was so much interwoven with ‘Same thought’ of doing things in our own ways.

Times changed and our career dominations took different trajectory, but though our destiny took us poles apart, we were constantly in touch with our true bonds of togetherness. We used to communicate via open letters, then came the grandeur of Internet which made us believe in the communication world of emails. In the midst of all this, our lives took other dimensions and we got married and had beautiful families. With the advent of WhatsApp again our communication began with equal ferocity – enquiry about our latest happenings in life, our families and health whereabouts were frequented in our recurring talks.

Ravi was docile and a good listener, his success mantra in life was based on the simple trilogy of Bhagwat Gita “ Do your work and let consciousness do the rest, don’t hanker on what you have done right or wrong!”, We used to have frequented talks about life and perils of it and what best we can do to sumptuously enjoy the delicacies it throws on us!

Of late it was not so long ago that we had a WhatsApp chat to know about wellbeing of us and our families, all seem to be going good and Ravi was in good health and was working from home as most of us are in this uncertain times of pandemic, the world came crashing when I informed myself about the tragedy which had struck Ravi last week, I could see his updated WhatsApp message status about  his sudden demise as he succumbed to Corona in US. A sudden sullenness engrossed me and my individuality , how uncertain and unpredictable the next second of one’s life can be!

Ravi was a soul who knew the unpredictability’s of life and its nature – he somehow knew that things could turn uncertain at any hour, may be due to his clairvoyance or his thoughts from his sub-conscious mind. I could not gauge his somberness in the last WhatsApp chat we had last week , but now when I deeply realize his meaningful words , I concise  

The echoes of his words have got engraved in my heart and soul, thus they are “ You are here for a purpose, and you shall be called back anytime, any moment when the purpose is fulfilled, knowingly or unknowingly you have to obey to HIS call and you cannot question it!”

Paying a heartfelt obeisance to my beloved childhood friend, all I have to say is that “ You exemplified your living with what you spoke – Life is the biggest chimera of living as you will be asked to Stop anytime , any moment – Rest in peace my beloved and be prepared to come back as per your Karma”

As I culminate this heartfelt note paying my tribute to Ravi through a verse of Bhagwat Gita which he so loved ...

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya ,navāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇi

tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya, nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī...

Purport:-

“As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one.”

Rest in peace my friend “ I shall see you in another world fulfilling the purpose of your living true to your call of rebirth… Till then Goodbye !!!