~ Looser's are Winners...~

Sports have been an integral part of one life, during our younger days almost everyone was engrossed in playing his / her favorite sport till eternity – the only time we went back home was due to a reprimand from our vociferous grandparents…

Now that many of us sit at the cool comforts of our homes and watch the Olympics, there are many teachings that the sport camaraderie tells and speaks volumes about.

For many a ‘Bronze’ is a well-deserved medal than a ‘Silver’ which though has a high pedestal when one receives it, but it is only ‘Won’ when you fail, quite contrary to the Bronze which you have to “win” to procure it! so when our favorite P.V Sidhu won the coveted Bronze medal, it taught me a lesson , you have to fight till the end when you have fought your battle and still emerge as a winner after many defeats!

By this logic, a Bronze medal winner is happier than a ‘Silver’ medalist though he has a higher rank. The Bronze medal has been won by the grit of the player though he lost his contention to ‘Gold’ or ‘Silver’. The player does not loose his aim even after the defeat and continues till the last end with a hope of ‘Winning’ the ‘Bronze’.

Following the Olympics spirit, we have seen many examples of humane emotions overpowering the power knacks of sportsmen. A case in point is Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi facing Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim in the final of Men’s high jump when the Italian was injured and was not able to compete further – earlier both had jumped 2.37 meters and were on a tie! The sportsman spirit took the better off the Qatari athlete and he withdrew from the final jump and thus another sporting history was made – that the ‘Gold was shared for the first time in the Men’s high jump event on compassionate grounds!” , though Olympic rules allowed this to happen and due permissions were taken on this before arriving at any decision.

For many of us this is no little wonder, Olympic Gold is the ornament one would like to wear as a triumph of a powerful win in an event – it strongly portrays the effort and shinning spirit of the athlete to be at the top – a well deserved notion of a winner!

From motivational adverts “ Ma mein gold wapas le aayi” by Bhawani Devi - India’s first fencer to qualify for Tokyo Olympics’21, the charisma outshines other aspects of life – the shine of the metal overshadows all other ‘misses’ and one creates history, though this time a small step but the vision and focus have set ground for others to emulate, your name gets embarked in the memories of time for ever.

The precincts of the games give you an adrenaline rush down your spine, with zillion watchful eyes for that ‘Golden’ moment, it surely takes guts to offer your ‘Gold’ to someone else – there are no winners but only presets which become historical moments of time and are always remembered for its beauty and uniqueness.

There are many dejections too but every failure again teaches us that we are lacking behind in our effort as the opponent has something which you still have to achieve in order to get past him. The testimony of time is the only motivation one can have to achieve the unachievable. So when Indian weightlifter ‘Mirabai Chanu’ gets us a Silver, the first of its kind in our Olympic history, the whole country erupts – the story unfolds when she tells us about the hard work and toil she has gone through for that piece of metal. We all concur with the results but conveniently skip the journey!

So next time when someone stands on the pedestal, think about the path the sportsman has treaded to stand infront of the camera for those eye-catching moments, we should be engrossed in our thoughts about the slog and sweat one must have gone through to be where they are!

~ Ravish & a Life Head On...~

He comes in the gasp of selling things – from items of daily usage like kitchenware, scissors, combs, knife and all sundries, he is still a student with a rock-solid aim.

The current economic distress has hit upon his family and as a rational, “Ravish” took upon himself to support his father to run the family show. In doing so, he has for sure taken up the responsibility of a obedient son and a family member. The task is daunting but he is sure that he would be able to accomplish that...

His smile, as elegant as he is, covers his daily struggle but he is sturdy and has a strong resolve in his mind – to be working in an MNC as a software engineer – his aim’s are high, considering his current situation. Ravish is soft spoken and on the first look would make you believe as a mundane hawker with no distinction but when you start conversing with him, you will find the real tinge of his character.

I was astonished with his soft-spoken English stance, not by an iota of any expectation or surprise, I dived into that short-lived communication that we had just the other day in my local flea mart. He was at his best of moods and I saw him after quite some time as due to various restrictions imposed as covid protocols throughout Delhi.

As always, he has arranged his cart in a pristine way – not a single item is off-track and all of his ‘products’ (as he calls them) are stacked cleanly to the customer’s delight – This is the first tinge that you get of him whilst you will meet him.

A general chit-chat lasted for about few minutes and that happy and shy smile was ingrained in my thoughts – whilst I took his snap, I told him that he would soon be seeing himself on the web with a short parable – no surprises, I knew he is addicted to the net and his best friend – his smart phone ( as many youngsters today are).

“Sir, this is the best companion I have, I study and download my chapters from my phone – this is my virtual class as well. I also chat with my friends and share pics and study notes. Occasionally, I watch movies!”, I gave him the URL where he would be reading his story, whilst I make him virtual, Ravish’s zeal has an intriguing caption – “The Man with a hidden Desire”

So what motivates my street Smart “Hero” to work for considerable hours of the day and then become a focused student in the night – he reverts “ I want to get my family out of poverty and the misery of living a downgraded life, I want to help my father and that is my single minded aim.”

The firmness in his voice was the only bet which can make you think about his sturdy aim, he is adamant to become something in times to come.

Though as a good Smartian, he hardly gave me any discounts, but smiled, which captivated me to give him whatever he asked, his confidence beseeched my bargain and I succumbed to his salesmanship.

Here, I am seeing a next gen businessman in the making, the tricks, and tirades of business, he is learning from the ground. He has not taken the anti-situation of life as his destiny as most people do, he is struggling each single day as it comes and one day who knows what comes out of his struggle... 

“As they say a journey of thousand miles start from the first step.” – Ravish has taken the first step and his journey has just begun, I will hope that he proves this saying for me to emulate his story to many other souls who have succumb to the pressures of day to day hassles and have almost given up on their aims and aspirations – till then, let the time be the best answer to our expectations and journey of our life….

~ Darkness is Just Beautiful...~

Treading the aisle of the park, I see the elegance of love to its mystified beauty. The old couple generally comes before twilight when there are less gentry doing their chores and when the tarmacs are mostly clear of gushing crowds. They must be in their mid-70’s and are ailing with multiple disorders as one can clearly observe.

The best part of their bondage is that they walk in their own composure and speaking incessantly to each other. The lady’s uncle is always at his narrative best and is mostly engrossed in parroting the description of the park and its ambience as they move slowly and steadily.

The unfortunate part being Auntie’s blindness as I observe that she wears her dark glasses to avoid the sun’s direct glare, but as they say ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.”, and hers is an elegant smile on her face, which makes her charming and a noteworthy character treading past you, holding his beloved hand and drowned in her own thoughts.

Sometimes I see them sitting down on the bench with a flask opened up and both having their evening tea-cuppa and enjoying the generosity of nature – with chirping birds, squeaking of squirrels and not to forget the pooches, who sit in front of them majestically with eyes glued to those biscuit packets and with a hope of getting some of them.

The best part of both of them is the camaraderie between the two – as if they were born for each other in this lifetime. Aunty, though has severe constrains to her sight, has seen the whole of the world as she creates her own little world based on the commentary by her loving husband – as I again say , her smile says it all. I can’t imagine a world without seeing it with my own eyes, just mere closing my eyes and trying to emulate a life makes me shudder with fear and gloom, how this lady has lived without seeing the world for so long. How does she visualize things and forms her own image to the words she quietly listens from her husband – just magical it may seem!

Both the aged ‘Lovebirds’ as I call them are a beautiful sight to watch – at this ripe age of their life, they both giving each other the much needed support and strength to continue is just a teaching for all of us – Quite hopefully, a day would certainly come in our lives when we along with our spouses would be sitting idly in a park or our balconies and talking of the journey of our life, remembering those beautiful moments of time when we were young and in control of our bodies and mind.

With each passing day, we all are approaching our may-day years, and this would be the time which we would be strongly wanting a company to assist us for our daily chores and for killing boredom.

The octogenarian couple as I see them today is a pre-emptive notion of our times to come, I always look forward to seeing them every day whilst I brisk-walk and jog on the aisle and every time I see them deliberately, I am amazed on the smiles on their faces and the happy mood they are in – I have no further clue about their family or how many children they have or if at all they live with them or not but all these questions and apprehensions become futile as I see both of them engrossed in their own small world and as a complete family altogether … Bless them as I concede this truth and looking forward to seeing them tomorrow with the same vigor and vitality of life… setting a true example of love, romance and care at this stage of one’s life…

~ Festivity Of Life...~

Enjoy the festivity of life in full glance of nature, you are here for this lifetime and would be born in another dimension, circumstances and situation and family considering your current doings in life.

Pamper yourself at times of gloom and distress when you find no way out sitting in the confines of your home and have nothing to think or do – the mind is blank and caresses unequivocal thoughts and wanderings which may make no sense today but that is the work which mind is supposed to do!

Taming the mind has been the most arduous tasks in the world, keeping it under control and focused confers you with a role of a “evolved soul” – sometimes mind will make you fear things out of proportions – the fear of failure or of the unprecedented happening coming your way  - After all , life has always been a journey of chance – think in the retrospective, we all took big chances to reach to a level that we are today – many of the chances bore fruit and we succeeded in our efforts, for others, we miserably failed but survived – that is the beauty of life – we will surely fail in many other chances that we intent to take but the ‘Keep Walking’ attitude is what will make us reach our true destination and achieve a goal.

Many years later, thinking in the retrospective, we all will realize what we missed – sometimes it came to us naturally as we did not succeeded and would get to understand the way providence plays to fine-tune our life’s journey – We came here for a definitive purpose and so are we struggling to find that.

The rigmarole of daily struggle has mechanized our life’s and beyond , our thinking and daily acts have no major substance left for enjoyment – turning robots ourselves, many of us do feel dejected at the end of the passing day. We need to come out of the whirlpool by our lateral thinking, we have many responsibilities – true that, but we are our own selves too!

How many of us cherish each day with gravity of thoughts that each passing second wont come back ever, so will be the events that we are going through or experiencing? In between, we have to make ourselves happy and focused towards our objective – be it career, home, family and other precincts of our journey on this planet. Educate yourself just not to earn your bread and butter but also to be a keen observer of this ‘Silent Play’ of life – how situations and time is subtly changing, and we are just unmindful of such a change. 

A day would come that we all have to call it quits – your favorite possessions will be somebody’s else – you did all the hard work your mind and body allowed you to do for a day that you have to give it to somebody and move out of this world’s affairs – only to be remembered sometimes or may be not !

As they always say “Time is a big healer” and your loss would surely be compensated with other happiness which our family members would seek – the best part is be a part of this journey with your focus on yourself too – with all might, do silliest of the things which you are inhibit of , dance like you have never dances, play any sport as you are a kid, sing on top of your voice to let the world know that we have arrived, do any such activity which makes pace with your soul and gives you that internal happiness that you are chasing like a never ending chimera of life – for one day

As it rains, the sounds of falling droplets made me write what I did – the conjure of thoughts in my mind has been given shape as words – you have your own dialect of living – start with what you love doing and see what changes it brings to your attitude and your acts of living… till then … enjoy the dance of nature and have a cup of tea or coffee and be with your best friend i.e. YOU!

~ A Soul Aloof…~

He is ‘free’ from his responsibilities and have set his foot on doing things which otherwise he could not have done. His journey of life is as fantastic as the man he is – always making you smile and cracking pranks and jokes when he will meet you. ‘Sheel Uncle’ as we always have called him ever since we have known him for so many years in the past, he has shared our growing up years and quite often used to see us playing games in our local park.

Now that his only son has left him alone for greener pastures overseas – though being offered to accompany him, he blatantly refused ( as he once told me, though don’t know if it was a genuine truth or he just spoke to save his son’s character!), he has been meddling with petite affairs of locals, be it of his locality or neighbors, though nowadays I see him quite often spending time with shopkeepers in a nearby market. One thing for sure I have to claim about Sheel uncle – he has been a man of integrity and honesty as I have benchmarked his character through an incidence that happened long back.

As street urchin’s, we used to spend zillion hours during the day passing time in a nearby park and uncle’s home was just adjacent to our playground and as a natural inevitability, one day his glass window got shattered by one of our cricketing shots  - Just then, all hell broke loose as Sheel uncle just could not control his anger and broke our cricketing bat 😊. As kids, the neighborhood’s sympathy went in favour of us and Sheel uncle soon realized his folly and paid us in full the amount required to buy the bat of same stature and quality, not a penny was compromised. Further his large-heartedness bestowed us that day when he bought cold drinks for us as well and did not demand money for the damaged window!

That parable still has an strong stamp on my mind whenever I see him roaming around in aloofness – His wife is no more and there is nobody who he can share his loneliness with…We as grown up kids now always make it a point to greet and share our past memories with him, which he always remembers , believe me times certainly changes.

Many of us living in colonies have such people who are singletons and there is nobody who they can call friends or acquaintances, more so , they are vulnerable to changing times and are hawk-eyes of criminals. We as a society can be a soothing stance for them – just sharing or cracking a simple joke or giving some moments of our life and talking to them certainly makes a huge difference to them.

Remember, our days would also come as our kids would be busy in our own lives – may be out of this country and we would be in a situation to live like Sheel uncle – our family would be our neighbors and old friends with whom we have shared our life’s moments and now they are in the same carriage as we are in.

The oldies as I always say are full of life’s wisdom – the only flaw is with us that we are so super busy in chasing our dreams and aspiring to be ‘Something’ totally oblivious to our approaching years… for that would be the most demanding years of our life’s… with health bottlenecks and we requiring a constant care …a good friend or a neighbor would be our only hope for a witty talk and survival…till then, be someone’s companion and share a joke or two to help pass his boredom… someone is seeing you doing this…!!!

~ Nature’s Bounty…~

It silent but working, it is most caring and benevolent and showers us daily with her motherly love, but we as humans have turned her down day and again and have been cruelest to her.

The recent covid mayhem was filled with lifelong lessons which we ought to learn and practice but as history of humanity goes, our memories are short term and fragile. No wonder the forces of nature knows how to deprive us of our living and it does so time and again. Back and forth the cycle of forgetfulness and nature’s punishment goes on and on…

I came across a beautiful and educative parable today which all of us should earnestly read and learn from and here it goes…

When a 93-year-old man was discharged from the Corona ward, the hospital staff asked for 13 thousand more rupees when he started walking after paying the bill. This amount was left to be added to the bill for some reason. On asking he was told it was a one day oxygen bill. The old man started crying after hearing this.

Seeing the old man crying, the doctor said, ′′ You don't cry, if you can't pay this amount, let it be. ′′

Then that old man said something, hearing which the whole staff started crying.

He said, ′′ I'm not crying over this bill, it's not hard for me to pay this bill. I can easily fill this. ′′

′′ I'm crying because I've been breathing for 93 years and I haven't paid a penny for these breaths. If the cost of breathing a day is 13 thousand rupees, then you can understand how much I am in debt to nature so far. ′′

′′ I never thanked nature for this precious gift of oxygen. ′′

Friends, this world is a game of nature. Our body and our every breath is priceless. We can thank nature by keeping it clean without teasing it.

Be in one with nature every moment, thank him for his blessings and remember him every breath...

′′ Take care of trees so that breathing is easy ′′

Our relationship with mother nature is not only of give and take but also of love and care, the more we will oblige towards her caring nature, the more it will be beneficial to us all. Remember what has been given to us as ‘Free’ can be taken back anytime be it our life or natural resources pertinent for our daily existence, we all take these as granted but when the test of time occurs, it is we who will be the real sufferers and time and again this has been truly proved to us…. Be thankful to your surroundings and the circumstances bestowed on you as everything here has a purpose… respect and care is what is the need of the hour…

~ In a Dreamy World… ~

Sitting and watching the kindness of nature, thoughts started to pour in as rain droplets, the mercy of nature finetuned me to be a dreamer and a plan maker... but our dreams are part of our daily motivations. 

Many of us make plans and try every bit of an effort to accomplish those, "Start" is the first thing that you need to work on and it takes lot of self-motivation to bring thoughts on table – plans can be your wild imagination at a time of laziness but surely, if given a good direction and an effort you can realize those!

We will all have days of elation and bad days – things wont go the way you want them to be and some would be better off days , when you will be the same person, with same skills and resources but you will internally happy for no good reason, out of nowhere you will rejoice on the happenings which you had no control over or you were not the ‘Doer’ of such things, that is the enigma of life.

Take baby steps to move towards your accomplishments, “you can do that” would be the inner voice that would keep on prodding you to make a start, soon you would realize that what you though was arduous came out to be a smooth sailing, it is just a matter of time and more than that your interest that fructifies it all!

Reading was the toughest part of my life at one point of time, I could not sit and read for long moments, but had a strong inquisition of my inner self and to find a meaning of my existence. You cannot go circling the world and meet top notch achievers but you can certainly make friends with them whilst you read about their life and their experience – I did that, there were books which I lay my hands on and books made thing laterally, in a dreamy world which was non-existent for me but which had occurred before...

Out of all that I wrote, the crux comes out to be one liner… “ Dream and send your thoughts to the higher self, one day , you will get back your answers for sure!” , you will realize this concept when things will start to manifest in physical form. Don't fear anything as a great saying well accomplish this notion " Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will..."

In the midst, you will surely loose your track, will be heartbroken and will succumb to worldly pressures – that is obvious, we don’t live in a dreamy and perfect world altogether. There are strict and compelling moments of time that we have a fallacy of life and we grow weak but your dreams have the outreach to shed these moments and you again stand up the very next day with a better zeal to outperform your character in this world. The eureka moments of life are always to be cherished as these would be the most laughed and distinguished moments which will stand as a remembrance when you will grow old and wont be having many people around to talk and spend time with… That’s life... at the end , everything would look like a dream … the people who lived with you and are no more now, the time which suddenly seem to be yesterday years, everything would fall into a category of a chimera which you never lived but only have memories of , thoughts of which would make you cherish those days….

~ Bonds of Souls...~

I have been severely intrigued by the zeal of living by people around me in spite of the desperate life situations they are going through. The daily living comes up with a new challenge and they are adamant to call it quits! ...What makes them go with the time and looking forward towards life...

Today, I write about a lady who comes with her son who is not a normal child, I assume that is the best time of the day for her son as I see him elated and smiling when he sees his surroundings full of noise and activity going on in the park. Some kids are jogging, others are just idling around whilst many are playing soccer with loud shouts!

What must her mother be feeling when she see’s ‘Normal’ children playing around in the park and her son being wheelchaired by her and what about the hardcore feelings and wanting of her son, for he at an almost adolescent age cannot stand and join those footballers who are enjoying their time.

God must have given her great courage and sensibility to cater to such a soul born as her son. She has truly taken over the control of his life and has dedicated her being to the wellness of her paralytic son.

Just the other day, she was making her son roam round the aisle of our park when a group of some old woman happened to be communicating with her – may be out of curiosity, they asked her about her son’s condition – He is suffering from a condition called “Muscle Dystrophy” since birth , fully knowing that the condition is progressive with time and patients with such conditions are generally not able to live a normal life and also succumb to worsening conditions with time, the mother was bold enough to encounter those incisive questions and further stated “ He is on treatment and soon will stand on his own feet and play football as other kids!”

Now for me, that is just phenomenal faith the iron lady has on the grand design. As she moved forward with her wheelchair bound son, she was in thorough process of talking to her and as I could see, she was getting answers in the affirmative – What a bond both the souls had – a truly remarkable existence!

For them, world was just two of them and they were born for each other , such was the love of a mother towards her son – she took on herself the best ‘Gift’ and ‘Responsibility’ God has given on her as a test of time and also to improve upon her Karma cycle – to the spiritualists, you can call it ’Prarabdha karma’, that she needs to execute in her lifetime.

The best part being that she has taken up the situation in her stride and have accepted her tryst with destiny with open arms and a genuine smile – how many of us have got the grit to follow on her footsteps and behave and dedicate ourselves to such a lifelong cause. Her humility and gratitude towards life’s vignettes remains steadfast , the calmness and the everlasting smile on her face tells me about how much she loves her son.

~ Time and Money...~

 The inter complexity of Money and time cannot be understood without loosing one of either as we live today in this uncertain world . Can these two parameters of life be made mutually exclusive, so much so that sometimes you have all the time on this planet and you are just a wastrel – just don’t want to do anything and idle around and attract the ire of friends and foes but you at the end of the day are the happiest lot as you know the quintessential truth of the world “ Time” is all that is in rarity!

At other moments of life, you will have money enough to purchase your zestful objects , be it cars, house or other expensive items in your deck but you will be lacking in one essentiality of life and that is ‘Time’ , for that is what you have sacrificed to have that aplomb of life… You may earn heaps of money to satiate your greed but one day time would make it worthless for it would have moved on and the biological clock would be ringing bells for us to call it quits for life!

The art of living today is a tough choice and making a balance between the two have’s requires considerable thinking and acting as both the wannabes can elude you till eternity as has been with many people who have started to chase money to have that ‘Quality of life’ which they thought could be bought only by having so much of it but after years of struggle when they finally heard people calling them successful and rich, they had lost the battle to the ‘Time’. Such is the equation between money and time that many of us find it immensely tough to balance the two on equal podium and gauge our life with a measurable success. The quest for pelf will make you poorer by many hours as time would elude you silently as its true character is shaped up by its skipping away second by second.

Thinking at this moment of our lives when so many years have passed in a timely silence, we can never think of so much time I have spend as what we are and what we have truly become. The constant chase for success and money as a byproduct has made us evade the ticking timeclock and we have made ourselves workaholics to the tune of not identifying our own presence.

As time and money play hide and seek, we all will one day realize a dastardly fact – that probably we would have utilized our most precious resource ‘Time’ for our own selves and our families and that we would have had an enriching life to be followed by our next generation , which would act as a teaching for everyone to emulate.

Lastly what we have to realize one day is that the biggest difference between Money and Time is that you always know how much money you have but will never get to know how much time you have …!!!

~ I am Alive...~

 I am alive! , this was the short sentence which fancied my eye when it was being spoken by a octogenarian gentleman whilst he was conversing with his friends of almost same age – the gossips and murmurs continued to elevate their feeling of happiness and that most of them have had a lucky streak and was saved by the deadly virus post April and May, when it had created mayhem for many!

But all set and done, the group was at their vivacious best, many of them had a toothless smile and were cheering on to life’s fairness towards them, though I could also see some gloomy faces amongst them and that they had valid reason for being so – as the thought of loosing near and dear ones can play havoc on your mood when you try to remember them.

Nevertheless, the cheered to their heart content and caught the attention of almost everyone why bypassed them on the aisle! After many months , I could see the camaraderie of these octogenarians diving into the spirit of life and meeting for that one last time as if there would be no tomorrow – but in reality who knows what is bestowed on every one of us – do we have an enabling future – it stands as an open guess for everyone!, but for now such time and moment is nothing short for them as home away from home...

This liveliness is the moment of time when they can think of their present and live with gravity of thoughts thereafter, this is the lesson many of us have learnt in short period of time. We have been engrossed in our own worlds of anxiety and have actually forgotten to set our truest emotion – “Laughing out loud” to its grave.

Seeing these age old friends whilst I brisk walked in our neighborhood park, feelings of hope and containment came a natural progression – the good time is certainly back and is at its good swing , no amount of WhatsApp videocalls can compensate for a physical meeting of friends – the gourmet of emotions were at its best, asking about each other’s wellbeing and cracking of jokes made these men a different genre altogether as if they had once again started to live their younger days and reversed the time for their own betterment!

They seem to be rejoicing the end of lockdown and had been given permission by their respective family members to venture out and enjoy the moment – being in that vulnerable group of being easily falling prey to covid, many were talking about the vaccination they had taken and even boasting about being safe from the threats of the invisible enemy they would ever see – I internally wished them ‘all the best’ till they meet again and may I see them all clustered together, brimming with confidence and showing their liveliness for all of us to emulate in our own lives when we touch such age!

~ My Gardner Friend...~

Today, I write about two strangers who used to stay in vicinity, they hardly knew each other but only through eye-contacts which they did when they used to come face to face during such time.

They refrained from communication as there was no common subject which they could speak on. Years passed by, one of the strangers retired from a government bank and develop a new found passion for plants and gardening – his sole aim was to kill time and steady his mind towards some activity – Gardening being the activity of choice he was thinking since long but could not devote time to his hidden desire.

He didn’t know that he had unknowingly created a subject of discussion with the other stranger and next time they both would come face to face, there surely will be a communication to start with. The time came and both were facing each other on the same lane, immediately the retired stranger broke his silence and asked “Namaste, how long have you been doing gardening? And what plants are your favorites?”

The other stranger, not expecting a communication from the elder stranger was little astonished but gently replied – “Namaste Sir, I have been doing gardening for more than 15 years now, and my all-time favorite is Money Plant!”

The pleasantries were exchanged as they had broken the silence – soon a friendship developed and both strangers started to visit each other houses to discuss the wellbeing of plants – they also exchanged new born saplings which they cut out for each other to be planted otherwise.

As time progressed, their bond grew over a cup of coffee and they also started to visit the nursery to share the commonality with gardening. Over a period of time, both the strangers became good friends and started to communicate photos and videos of their small garden which they had maintained, technology had played a great role to cement this friendship!

 Then one day, suddenly one of the phone stopped sharing the WhatsApp pics of newborn saplings, this was the phone of the old retired stranger – the younger one became apprehensive of any eventuality that might have happened to his new found mate – he started to ping him earnestly and found no response. Out of sheer curiosity, he rang the phone up but no one responded, his curiosity led him to suspicion. As both of them lived quite near to each other, some blocks away, he planned to visit his older friend to know about his whereabouts. 

The day came he stood In front of his old friends house – he rang the bell and found an old lady came out and asked what was the matter – out of inquisition, the young stranger asked him about his older pal as he was not responding to the phone calls or WhatsApp messages.

All hell broke loose when he was told that Mr. Srinivasan (the name of the older stranger) was no more and had passed away last month due to Covid. The young stranger was at loss of words and had choked breath and just paid his condolences and came back in a thoughtful mood. 

The only thing mattered to him was his older pals absence – he started to reminisce his past and the talks he used to do with his friend – they both shared their life’s journeys on a cup of tea , surrounded with hordes of beautifully nurtured flowering plants. How time has just passed that now his gardening friend was no more – though he lived in the plants which he had gifted his younger friend – now that its been quite some time that he is gone, beautiful saplings have blossomed out of plants that the banker had given to this young fellow…

Still whenever the young stranger passes through his friends house, he is reminded of the plants that lay near his main-gate and which is now caressed by his wife, a grim reminder of life lesson – no one is permanent here… by the way the young friend was myself and I write this story in all melancholy today as today was the day when his gifted ‘Money plant’ has shrouded itself in all new leaves , making me remind of His presence around men. Rest In peace my dear old pal… till we meet again ..somewhere… and in some other dimension…!!!