Sena off Color

What is the purpose behind blocking the Colors channel because of Pakistani participation in some attempt of tit for tat.. does it mean they condone what the other country did by doing the same thing.. or do they protest what the other country did by doing the same thing.. in a city that breathes the spirit of Cosmopolitan Benevolence, are they retaining or destroying it.. if they protest as Indian Citizens here, then how do they forget that while saturating the spirit of Mumbai into a singular caste and lingo.. are they losing that unique Power and Respect earned over time.. what is tarnishing that fervor.. that belief.. that fearless grit.. People who can stand up for their Country, should not be dividing it in such trifling ways..

Adversity, Tragedy, Validation and Love

adversity exposes our true nature.. The rescued miners from Chile represent a celebration of our fight for survival at any cost.. let's hope they are able to bounce back to normalcy with the same aplomb.. 

short movie, 'Validation' - so beautiful on so many different levels.. it's our most basic need.. 'validation'.. an appreciation and acknowledgment of our existence.. yet so starved of that single 'I see you'.. we can recognize the hurt.. but only in ourselves.. 

short movie, 'The Door' - an unnerving depiction of the universal tragedy of Chernobyl.. a door symbolizing the swinging joys and sorrows.. unhinged into a last desperate wisp of dignity.. 

'SILK' by Alessandro Baricco - mesmeric wings of gossamer light amidst peaceful hues of intense moments, enhanced within a fluid hush.. like poetry in moving exposure..

some thoughts

shades of obsessivity constantly overshadow every other joy in life.. 

atrocities in any garb remain the same.. putting them in 'boundaries' of classifications like country, class, or culture we grant immunity to shame.. 

totally embroiled in our lives the whole world prays for peace against a small faction.. and lets fanaticism wreak its wrath with increasing darkness as more and more hit out blindly.. 

 Daughters are a gift to parents who needed a handful of divinity in their lives. 

it is difficult to comprehend the seamless connections linking everything to a similar fate.. 

sometimes life can be an ethereally cohesive delineation of Man and Nature.. and we've numbered the wonders of the world 

criticism is but a point of view a troubled heart enhances all our senses towards unhappiness.. 

teasers

shifting focus is all it takes to handle the essential nuances of life.. 

prayer and faith help manifest our belief in ourselves.. 

forgiving others is like forgiving something in ourselves that holds them back in our lives.. 

in all our classifications why does Humanity count the least.. 

there can be no 'excuses' for atrocities.. 

why mar the continuously evolving 'present' with reactions seeped in history.. 

how can laws written in black and white determine the gray areas of life.. 

self-seeking blinkers seem to enhance emotional and ethical myopia in man.. 

everything has many facets, that's why we each have an experientially unique perspective.. 

are all love-hate-love-hate relationships situational or personal.. 

if we can love or hate the same person with equal vehemence.. does that mean that every declaration in life panders to our essential 'self'.. 

did we make rules and customs to make life simpler or more complicated! 

the 'present' generation has been the' miserable' lot for centuries now.. and we are still blaming our ancestors:

when the universe itself is in perpetual flux.. and truth a matter of perspective.. then rules and customs remaining rigid and uniform, sometimes make you wonder if law was ever about justice.. and religion spirituality.. defying the cohesive substance of Human and Divine.. 

Throughout the year we celebrate some or the other festival.. it's not important whether we follow it or not.. the 'spirit' touches everyone.. extending wishes, touching lives.. in minute ways that say.. you care.. 

some meld the symphony in nature and life.. some make a lot of noise to feel alive 

prayer, whether by rote, or earnest wishes, forms our connection with ourselves and the Universe.. 

a heart though silent speaks louder than words.. 

we all want a better future and good health for our kids, then how can environmental issues not be our problem..

fluid rendezvous

even though we say we can't find the place where thoughts are fluid.. our words can flow in synchronicity.. like light notes strummed softly.. giving the feel of the music to come.. a rendezvous with the heart.. where you can feel the 'touch' of your thoughts as real.. as alive.. as special.. shorn of all the pointers to your self.. except this.. a recognition at once starved and fulfilling.. as the inane melts away.. and you can feel your smile..

Let me hear your soul
Whisper through your words
Streaming in waves of thoughts
Even you cannot perceive....

Soul of India, Song of Dusk

'expectations' - every past moment has molded us into who we are today.. and will continue to do so.. no matter where we are.. the 'shifting' within us as we raise more and more barriers with each disillusionment.. each disappointment.. had read a book sometime back, very controversial in it's acclaim.. 'The Last Song of Dusk' .. the author, Mr.Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, a very young guy.. was able to bring out this fact so beautifully in his two characters.. a couple who lost their child.. and how each coped with the same grief.. and how it molded them into who they became because of it.. really subtle and brilliant portrayal of human nature and how everything that happens in our lives molds us into who we are at a given point in time.. sometimes unrecognizable to people who knew us so well.. 

it's uncanny how, in "Shantaram", Mr.Gregory David Roberts and in 'Holy Cow', Ms.Sarah MacDonald, have been able to grasp the sheer sense of 'freedom' touching the soul of India.. but more than anything, they somehow speak to the 'seeker' in each.. both very diverse journeys into India, both applauding, respecting, celebrating its unique pervasive spirit, that embraces and acknowledges 'life' for itself.. not chaffing the husk but the disdain..

alluring artist

love the early hours.. when sometimes.. the pearly light of the moon.. bewitched.. welcomes the rose of dawn.. a divine beauty in each.. The sky still lit up with moonlight.. the moon glowing as never before.. Full of love.. Just before it merges.. Dazzled.. Losing itself.. Uniting with the sun.. I see the pale Shimmering Rose in the Sea.. Dancing enticingly.. Can feel the reflection within me.. Special moments playing a dance of their own.. A wondrous beauty.. Repetitive.. Yet awesome.. Fresh.. New.. Never getting enough.. Never escaping the magic.. Always.. Always bathed.. in this Rose and pearl.. Feel lucky to be able to see the sunrise.. and sunset both.. from my bedroom windows.. one facing east.. another west.. even the moon glows right outside.. struggling up there.. with the clouds.. so many are there.. unendingly.. and yet.. impossible to resist those fleeting glimpses full of smiles.. can’t help falling in love.. the joy reflected so pervasively.. basking in that ethereal glow.. mesmerized.. unable to contain.. to hold.. when the 'ache' merges shimmeringly in this dance of shadows and light.. as 'divinity' softly enters my heart.. bathed in a magical hush.. yes the need is there.. to hold this 'tiny' miracle that glows in my eyes.. that settles in my heart.. that makes me forget everything.. as involuntarily I stretch out my palm as if to hold something beyond.. way beyond.. and it smiles reflectively.. as I shake my head in wonder at this irresistible bond that pulls me despite all comprehension......... The sounds of the birds.. the lapping of the sea and the ‘fiery’ sky.. both at Dawn and Dusk.. there is nothing like it.. words could never capture that beauty.. awesome.. free.. fresh.. yet.. ‘unseen’.. we’d rather stand in line for tickets to sight-see.. go to art galleries.. yet this ‘wonder’ always escapes.. always.. a plane fascinates.. but the flight of a bird.. have you ever seen the pure ‘symphony’ in it.. the ecstasy of frolicking with the winds.. an ethereal dance in the sky.. nature teaches us so much.. poetry in motion.. the artist in every creation.. every stroke.. laughingly giving us all the answers we seek.. like tiny shells in sea, each soul thirsts.. droplets of water evaporating.. a cyclic miracle of 'life and death'.. leaving the 'salt' behind each time.. to pour as the 'breath' of life.. again.. yet again..

metamorphosis

Hi.. your request for Rumi.. First I'd like to say what a personal pleasure it was talking to you.. recognizing that echoing 'silence' in your voice.. that speaks of various chains unshackling inside.. as we move towards that quiet space within our hearts.. ready to hear it speak..

"Come to the orchard in Spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts
in the pomegranate flowers,

If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter".

so so beautiful, isn't it.. when people touch on emotions, so simply.. say so much.. with so little.. that it remains with you forever.. and you can feel that soft beautiful center.. so long shrouded in shadows.. flower and smile.. This is my 'meeting' with Rumi.. we go to art galleries to see all those paintings.. of nature captured on canvas.. we even frame them on our walls.. eternally admiring each time we look at them.. but none inspires us enough.. to just once look up.. and outside.. each shade unique.. the changing colours of the sky.. a miracle happening.. an artist incomparable.. using different strokes each time.. belonging to 'us'.. free.. incomparable.. seeking it's frame.. in our eyes.. this is what Rumi's poetry breathes.. not mere words captured within pages.. but joy finding it's echo in so many hearts..

Sufism as I have felt through Rumi's words.. is love beyond the self.. an ecstasy.. a passion.. dancing and whirling in joyous freedom, embracing creation, uniting with one and all, recognizing the God within.. nearly impossible to communicate in words.. for as Rumi said..

"If you could get rid
of yourself just once
the secret of secrets
would be open to you"

but we go on seeking in life.. looking outside.. getting tangled in words and books.. scriptures.. preconceived notions.. truths.. until at some point.. something.. makes us turn inwards.. and we realize we all find our own truth.. for we all live in a world of our own making.. like two people looking out of the prison bars.. one could see mud.. the other stars.. for Rumi it was Shams of Tabriz who brought him back to himself.. helped him see the light inside.. and Rumi feeling that gratitude.. as if his whole life had moved towards this moment.. this person.. this truth.. deeply moved, said..

"What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being"

In our life we tend to focus our energies in the 'physical'.. for that is what we recognize.. and Rumi too moved in his journey from wisdom.. to soul recognition.. love.. silence.. worship.. devastation.. and ecstasy.. Rumi was a scholar and teacher himself.. until his path crossed with Shams of Tabriz.. who searched and prayed for someone who could 'endure my company'.. Rumi was so affected by this meeting.. that they became inseparable.. how difficult it is to realize who is getting more pleasure here.. even as we speak only of Rumi's ecstasy.. when Shams disappears from Rumi's life for some time.. is really the moment when Rumi first became a poet.. dancing and whirling for hours.. an involuntary transformation.. in a slow unraveling of the self.. again Shams came into his life.. and a mutual quietness settled inside.. until Shams disappeared forever, even as Rumi searched in vain this time.. and realized..

"Why should I seek? I am the same as
he. His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself!"

Such a beautiful merging of the self.. and letting go.. opening outwards.. like the outstretched hands of the dervishes.. as if embracing, celebrating life and divinity.. both within and without.. till nothing remains.. transforming into pure ecstatic light..

The seminar on Rumi's poetry was really illuminating.. though I found the lectures insipid topically.. how can poetry that speaks of abandoned love.. be covered by academics giving an account of his life and works.. (necessary, I admit).. still.. so grossly failing to capture the ‘essence’ of love beyond oneself.. within oneself.. gravitating towards another holding the mirror.. and we see the ‘hand’.. and we see the ‘image’.. till all sense of ‘separateness’ blurs.. merges into one cohesive whole.. the seminar defeated the whole 'meaning'.. sometimes conformity confounds to the point of vacuity..

none could bring out the ecstasy.. the elevation.. the surrender.. in his words.. no one would even touch the subject of his relation with shams.. the one person who could make him realize that the meaning of life and self.. wasn't in his books.. which only spoke of others truth.. how can one.. who puts you in touch with yourself.. not cause you to feel that ecstasy.. in yourself.. in him.. and in each thing around.. that eternal search for divinity just a breath away..

In our metamorphosis
let us look past the chrysalis
and greet each day
on colorful wings of joy
fragile..
beguilingly flitting over this
garden of our heart
drinking honey from all those
flowering perceptions
dancing in recognition
of our own divinity
laughing in the face
of time....

noesis

why are we cursing Destiny, or blaming Divinity for all our mishaps.. there does seem to be a 'time-keeper' charting each and every thought, word and action.. and with our minds able to detail incidents from myriad past lives under hypnosis.. maybe that makes us an essential iota, like a drop in the ocean, of a single Divine entity.. does that leave us pointing a finger at none other than ourselves.. are we determining our own life before Birth.. and does that leave us with a singular choice to follow our heart, that silently recognizes that path.. or a contrary bullheaded struggle, desperately rowing against the tide.. all it takes is a single 'shift' in pscyche.. for our world to shift and change..

the easy way out

A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. On that day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to force the body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and small shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was the way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle. every life-lesson is unique to every soul.. so easy to 'cripple' with helpful norms

'intro'spection

Once, a man pulled up into a gas station in the country, and asked the gas station attendant, "What are the people like in the next town up ahead?" The attendant said, "What were the people like in the town you just came from?" "Awful people," the man responded. "Rude, cold, hostile, abrupt, unfriendly. They wouldn't give me the time of day." "Well," said the attendant, "I'm sorry to say it, but you're going to find exactly the same sort of people in the next town up ahead."

A bit later, another driver pulled in, heading in the same direction as the first. "What are the people like in the next town up ahead?" the second man asked. The attendant said, "What were the people like in the town you just came from?" "Wonderful people," the second man responded. "Friendly, warm, helpful, patient, kind. They went out of their way to help a stranger." "Well," said the attendant, "I'm happy to tell you that you're going to find exactly the same kind of people in the next town up ahead."

A man who lost his axe suspected his neighbour's son of stealing it. To him, as he observed the boy, the way the lad walked, the expression on his face, the manner of his speech - in fact everything about his appearance and behaviour betrayed that he had stolen the axe. Not long afterwards the man found his axe while digging in his cellar. When he saw his neighbour's son again, nothing about the boy's behaviour nor appearance seemed to suggest that he had stolen the axe.

we only react to what 'we' see..

Ravana

it is so easy to shrug off or dismiss something away from the norm.. and 'Ravana' is one such film.. visually stupendous and vibrantly alive, this movie attempts to illustrate the 'Ramayana' of today.. with humanity as the norm, how values twist and stand on their head.. blurring the lines between good and evil, chiding those very 'stamps'.... Mr.Abhishek Bachchan and Mrs.Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, powerful actors in their own right, try to capture these 'changing' emotions on screen within a span of this short time.. celebrating the latent 'divinity' of every human being, so intrinsically enmeshed with the sublime.. compelling us to look in that mirror we can no longer avoid.. the swiftly changing faces of good and evil.. and their blurred defining lines.. like quicksilver these defining attempts of mankind.. can we find it in our heart, to accept.. to forgive.. to understand..

freedom

freedom is not the unshackling of 'relationships' and 'duties' to follow our own heart.. but to free our heart from the 'shackles' that exist only in the mind.. 

the pure truth of a drop and the ocean is it's cyclic inevitability.. 

if experience is a series of lessons unique to us, then let us teach to educate and learn.. 

revel in the symphony that nature brings forth afresh.. for the heart holds a song, if only we could stop to hear.. 

every custom and ritual are just that.. divinity still resides within and without.. 

if everything is prone to change, why are we so set in our ways.. 

the mysteries of life remain unsolved, yet we are so sure of our way as the only one..

Eat Pray Love

just finished the book 'Eat Pray Love', one woman's journey around the world, for a single step into her own heart.. though every experience is unique to that one person.. and we all need to step into our own light.. be it night or day.. we are grateful to Ms Elizabeth Gilbert, for this account of human 'possibility'.. that comes with no guarantees.. that needs constant work.. that isn't earth-shaking, but definitely 'moving' enough to embrace ourselves.. each one of us seeks a hand.. a guide.. a guru.. who miraculously makes everything okay.. but they can show us how to climb a mountain.. the grit is in our own hands.. loved the specifics in prayer, attested by as much of the universe as we can bring in.. love the thought of forgiving ourselves.. accepting.. and loving the good and the bad.. for how can we shadow the residing divinity within and yet seek to embrace the whole.. and that goes for the whole Universe too.. tiny little pockets of hope amidst an almost heroic saga.. a fairy tale odyssey of the heart..

blink of an eye

why do we continue to shun.. rue.. the darkness.. the negatives.. the losses.. in life.. if we could only accept them as a real part of life.. as real and true as the positives.. to let ourselves weep openly.. to empathize with another's loss without making it a spectacular catastrophe.. a topic of conversational gossip.. the struggle to 'look good' would lessen.. lightening our societal burdens tremendously.. if we are all one.. part of the same divine light.. who are we looking down on.. who are we looking up to.. where do we truly stand..